Jaune Nicol Arc
by justus3138
Summary: Dominaria's most ancient evil is dying, he goes to a plane that suits him to live his final moments and be reborn, but not everything goes as he planned and now the dragon is someone completely different. How will Jaune Arc change with the powers of an elder dragon at his command? Reviews are appreciated. Chapter one has been updated.
1. Chapter 1

So, this is the end for me? All my plans and schemes on the cusp of fruition and I'm unable to see them through. Denied at the last step what was mine to begin with, what I was born to achieve. The power of a Planeswalker. Not the spec of dust that it is now, but the god like power Planeswalkers held before the mending. Power I once held and that was rightfully mine, I was born with the ability to wield this power, but I had to work for it.

Thousands of years dedicated to learning and honing new skills to become the most powerful of them all, to be all that I could be. I reveled in the constant challenge, you could say it was the dragon in me that felt at home facing adversity that pushed me to my limits in all aspects of myself.

My skill and knowledge of magic, my cunning intellect, my strength as an elder dragon and a Planeswalker. All at some point tested to their limits. Some were even taken away, providing even more challenge, but they always came back, the loss temporary, until the blasted mending.

Half of what made me the most feared entity in the multiverse stripped away. The knowledge that collected over 25,000 years could not all be contained inside the mind of this new feeble Planeswalker I have been reduced to. That enraged me the most, for there was no way to get that back.

The power however was recoverable all I needed was the right tools for the job and Dominaria. Hundreds of years spent getting ready to ascend to where I once was, foiled by walkers who could not grasp the concept of what I was going to regain.

The Gatewatch stopped me, the Gatewatch dealt me a mortal blow. These walkers had not seen the darkness that I had. Nor faced the challenges on a daily basis I had to in order to survive in a world of titans. Where did I go wrong, what did I miss?

Then it hit me like a lightning bolt. I called them children who had not reached my level of power. Being as old as I am for as long as I have I guess I forgot that children grow up. They made me their titan to kill, to surpass. They did to me what I did to countless others. They conquered me.

I however was not going to stick around to hear the ape Gideon boast in the form of speeches. Using the last of my mana to cast a spell to make sure I wasn't followed, I planeswalked away to die in peace. My destination was a plane that I had visited but saw no value in until now. That value was its name. The world of Remnant was going to be my grave. A fitting resting place for the remnant of a time long past.

Ten years later

Ten-year-old Jaune Arc was on his yearly family camping trip on the continent Anima, but something was different this year. Young Jaune could feel this pull in the back of his head. Maybe it was from the argument he had with his father. Jaune wanted to become a huntsman like his father and grandfather before him. He just couldn't understand why they refused to even consider unlocking his aura.

This camping trip they where in a mountain range called Dragon`s Grave. Jaune found the fairy tale the mountains where famous for exciting. The locals said that thousands of years ago a wounded dragon chose this mountain range to draw its last breath at.

They also said that the bones of the dragon had magical powers that made the land quiet and stopped the earthquakes that shook the mountains every week, allowing people to settle the valley. Jaune found it strange that the quakes only stopped ten years ago.

The thought of finding the old dragon`s bones made Jaune forget about his problems with his family, if only for a little bit.

That night Jaune could not sleep. The pressure in his head from earlier today had become a splitting headache. He snuck out of the tent hoping the cool fresh air would get rid of the pounding in his skull.

The cool air did take the edge off, but the pain persisted.

Jaune walked around in frustration. Then he noticed something. The pain was shifting inside his head as he walked in circles, the pain would shift from the back to the side and then the front of his head where the pain was less.

Curious he stepped forward, the pain lessened a little. Little Jaune, not thinking of anything but getting relief from the headache continued walking forward and towards the mountains that they setup camp at the base of.

He soon found himself in front of a cave. Jaune was sad that it was dark out and he couldn't see in the cave to continue his quest for relief from the headache that kept him from sleep.

Suddenly, flames the size of torches came into existence along the walls of the cave. Startled, Jaune took a few steps back and his head throbbed. If naught for the pain that turning back seemed to bring Jaune most certainly would have turned back, but the ache in the back of his skull persisted.

Now he was mad, whoever was doing this was going to get his butt kicked by Jaune the hero! he thought, and that was when he decided to explore the cave and find this person and make them pay.

The trek down was treacherous, but manageable with the torchlight. Jaune could actually think straight now that the headache had become a dull throb, coincidentally as soon as the tunnel leveled out.

The flames now started to appear all over revealing the large cavern that Jaune found himself in. What laid on the floor cause his eyes to widen in awe.

A dragon, or rather the bones of one. Colossal in size, at least as long as a football field from head to tail and just as wide with the wings stretched out. Jaune didn't notice any of this not even the armor the bones wore, he was still in awe that he had found the mythic dragon bones.

The bones started to glow a deep blue. Jaune was still entranced by his discovery and was not prepared for what happened next. The bones burst like a balloon into motes of royal blue light, and now they where heading for him!

When the first one struck him his headache came back, the second one doubled the pain, the third cause a full-blown migraine and still there were thousands more. The pain was too much for the young hero and he quickly blacked out.

The little hero woke up moments later to a spinning cavern. Not that it was actually spinning, but it felt like it. Then white-hot pain burst through his skull, that's what it feels like when memories of a past life try to take over your mind and body.

Jaune couldn't concentrate, all of his thoughts were of a boy becoming an evil dragon, while in pain. Instinctively he cried out for help, a plea for help carried by the spark that both he and the dragon now shared.

His cry was answered by someone like him, his world was filled by a blue light so soft that it was almost white. Words he did not recognize were spoken by an ancient voice and the pain receded. Its source however was still there in the back of his mind clawing at the bindings holding it down.

Jaune could now see his surroundings and was left speechless for the second time that day. Before him was another dragon. This one alive and beautiful, his feathered wings giving him the appearance of a draconic angel, glowing in the cavern.

The mighty dragon noticed that the boy was awake and moved away from the armor that he was inspecting. "What are you doing here child?" The ancient being ask in a voice that sounded like his grandfather`s.

"My head hurt, and I couldn't sleep as I walked closer to this cave the pain went away, what`s going on, who are you? Did you make the pain go away?" The child asked desperately.

"It`s alright little one, yes I made the pain go away, I find you interesting, can you perhaps tell me about yourself, my name is Ugin." The dragon asked, trying to confirm what he suspected. The little Arc was floored but soon began telling his life`s story with a little embellishment thinking the dragon would lose interest in him if he was boring.

The dragon was listening intently never losing interest. Fearing any sign of his old nemesis showing up but he found none. Ugin pondered, what to do with this child? If left alone Bolas would return, but he couldn't kill the innocent child who held his soul, that would make him no better then his most hated enemy.

"Child, you said you wanted to be a hero, a huntsman you say?" he asked.

"Yes, it's my dream, but my family won't let me they keep saying no." the boy pouted. Ugin laughed, both at the boy's antics and at the absurdity and irony of what he was going to do.

"Well if they won`t train you maybe I can teach you some of the things I know?" he baited the child.

"Really! You would do that?" Jaune exclaimed, he would be trained by a dragon, nobody else could make such a claim this would be awesome he thought.

"Yes, I will teach you, here is a bracelet, (it was hedrons linked together) just think about this cave and it will take you to me and I will teach you while your parents are busy. There is catch though, you can't tell them about me. If they don't want to train you to be a huntsman I doubt they would appreciate a dragon filling in the position." He said with mirth.

Jaune left that cave with a little smirk on his face. The only impression of a smile he would ever leave the cave with. For he was going to find out quickly that the dragon with angel wings was really a devil of a taskmaster.

Seven Years Later

The bullheads flew gracefully on their way to drop off this year`s crop of new students. Among these new hopefuls was a "young" man unlike any other. Seventeen-year-old Jaune Arc stood at 6`1, the mystical armor and scarf of his past life, shrunk to fit his now smaller form. A long duster in the style of Sorin Markov was draped overtop with a hood at the back instead of a high collar. Crocea Mors sat on his hip, the sheath`s color changed from white with gold highlights to black with gold highlights.

The past seven years have been a hellish training regime devised by Ugin. The personality of Nicol Bolas was controlled by Jaune`s, thanks to help from the spirit dragon. With Nicol Bolas`s knowledge accessible to him, Ugin only needed to show him how to use the mana of this world in his human body.

Not that the form of an elder dragon was lost to him, he could adopt the more powerful body anytime he wished. It`s just difficult to explain a colossal dragon to your parents and the local authorities.

Once he was able to use magic properly Ugin decided to share his knowledge of colorless alchemical magic. When asked why he would share such powerful secrets, the dragon replied with he had never seen anyone with such a pure heart and that if anyone could put that knowledge to good use, it was him.

Normally such training would take decades at the least but with Jaune`s rediscovered telepathy and a willing participant, the knowledge transfer took a day. Of Course he would have to practice with it but at least he knew how to do it.

You're probably wondering why such a powerful person would be going to Beacon? Well the answer to that was two-fold.

Ugin could teach him how to fight as a dragon and how to use magic, but he wasn't equipped to teach weapons training to a human or how to use aura. His parents still wouldn't train him or unlock his aura and he didn't have the heart to use his mind arts on them. So, he found a huntsman passing through and suggested, both verbally and telepathically, to unlock it for him which is a lot easier then forcing it out like the first huntsmen did.

The second reason was that Jaune hadn't really interacted with other people beyond his family for these last seven years. A disregard for the lives of others was the one thing that many of the old Planeswalkers fell victim to, himself included.

Best to stop that before it even begins, besides, even though he had been through so much since that night in the cave, Jaune still wanted to be a hero like his ancestors.

He watched as other freshmen passed by doing a surface sweep of their minds as they passed. Lots of them where gossiping about the new hedrons that appeared around a small village outside of the kingdoms.

Jaune smiled at that, once he figured out how to make them, he would fly out to these villages at night in dragon form. He would setup a hedron barrier that would repel the Grimm. No one knew how they worked or who set them up and they couldn't tamper with them. Jaune made sure to key them to his spark to prevent any unsavory individuals from messing with them. Researchers from all the kingdoms were scratching their heads at these monoliths.

 _Jaune's POV_

The bullheads where now docking at Beacon Academy. I was making my way to the auditorium when I heard an explosion. Curiosity getting the better of me, I turned back to the docks to find a girl that seemed to be a little too young to be going to this academy, sitting on the ground.

Perhaps she was near the explosion? Now`s as good a time as any to try and make friends. "Hey, I'm Jaune"

"Ruby" she replied.

Talking with Ruby was intriguing, but I guess seeing as she was as socially awkward as me, we had common ground from which we could relate, her craftsmanship was also impressive. Her scythe was a work of art.

Eventually we made it to the auditorium, thank the multiverse I can sense minds. Ruby left to find her sister, now where was I going to find a quirky girl to talk to? Socializing in a more human way with people of a similar age, past life not included, was fun.

When headmaster Ozpin came up to give his speech something prickled on the end of my mystic senses, dialing them in. I was surprised to find that The headmaster was a mage, but his connection to the land and mana was weak.

Perhaps he was self-taught and doesn't know how to reaffirm his connection. Remnant was like Kaladesh in that most people used a physical form of mana to cast spells though calling them spells is a stretch. He was the first mage I`ve encountered native to Remnant.

His soul, now that I`m focusing on him, is also off. A person's magic is connected loosely to their soul. His felt like it was a patchwork of several souls. Soul sensing was always a shaky discipline I never saw the value of. Time to find my locker, the joys of school.

I am now convinced that the entire school does not have an organizational system that follows any frame of common sense I have come across in 25,000 years. Just finding the rocket locker room was a pain, the actual locker a true test of my patience.

When puzzling out the workings of a universe or this school, I tend to lose track of my surroundings, leading to me bumping into an ice queen and a red headed warrior. "Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going." I apologized.

"Really, you plebian, that's all you have to say?" The white-haired banshee screeched; did she have a sonic semblance? because that hurt.

"No snow angel I was wondering if you knew where locker 636 was and if you could screech at a decibel that won`t rupture my ear-drums." I deadpanned, messing with the stuck-up and sometimes rich people always amused me.

"The nerve! do you even know who you are even talking to?"

This was too easy. "Not by name but judging by your attitude I am going to guess a rich entitled girl who had the best tutors but no real combat experience, always got her way, and thinks everyone should either bow before her or join her because they have real achievements to their name, and your money puts you in the same league. Did I get that right? You're not actually a guy, are you?" I snarked.

The last one left her gapping like a fish and unable to respond. I turned my attention to the red head. Now that I took time to look at her she was quite the specimen.

The perfect blend of feminine beauty and deadly warrior. "And who might you be? cause if I ever saw you before I would definitely have remembered your name."

Her face was an amusing mix of wonder and blushing school girl, sadly the white demon had to ruin the moment. "You seriously don`t know who she is? She's Pyrrha Nikos."

"Doesn't ring a bell." I deadpan.

"Four-time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament, a new record." She adds desperately, like my enlightenment will save her life.

"Never heard of it" I teased.

"She was on the box of Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes" she tried.

I gasped. "You were on my sister`s favorite cereal box? She would skin me alive if I didn't ask you to be on my team." I joked.

"Well I think you would make a great leader, but I think teams consist of four people." The warrior queen spoke.

"Well then I guess we had better find some more friends, hey snow angel spots are filling up on team Jaune and I`m not suppose to do this but I could reserve a spot for you?" I said while leaning in to make her uncomfortable.

"Ah no that's too close Pyrrha, a little help" next thing I know, I find myself pinned to a locker by Pyrrha`s spear. This woman was both kind and brutal. Bolas was purring in delight at the attention and I agreed with him which almost never happens.

Bolas is all the instincts I gained from Nicol Bolas`s bones after his personality was dealt with, problem is that my human brain is, well human. So it`s like a little voice in the back of my head, nudging me towards certain actions, like making the vixen that pinned me to the wall mine, and world domination, so I take his advice with a grain of salt.

While all of this was going though my head she apologized and left with her spear. Time for Initiation.

I have found the source of all the crazy that surrounds the school. You wouldn't know it by looking at the headmaster, but anyone who uses such a random way to assign teams either has a sadistic streak a mile wide, or a few screws loose, and don't even get me started on how we entered the forest.

I was still processing the absurdity when I was launched into the air. Before I could prepare my landing strategy, a by now familiar spear had me pinned to at tree.

When the owner appeared, I couldn't resist. "I feel I should be concerned about your obsession with pegging me with your spear."

She sputtered at that one. "Well it looked like you could use the help what with you flailing in the air" she shot back with the effectiveness of artillery fire.

Me, a dragon, struggling in the air! Ugin must never hear of this. "I was going to be fine, but your intervention saved me wasting aura."

One of her eyebrows rose, "Nobody has enough aura to take a hard landing through a forest." She accused.

"Well as my partner, I guess I can spill the beans, my semblance is aura enhancement and one of the things I can do is enhance mine or other`s auras, defensive attribute or healing and I`ve always had a ridiculous amount of aura."

A person`s aura is a type of soul magic that fuels a semblance, but its cut off from the mana of the world for some reason, and as such it cannot be replenished except by internal function, such as resting or eating.

I as a mage can replenish my aura from my connection to the land of this world, connections I made during training to cast spells. This allows me to replenish mine at ridiculous speeds, but is a little uncomfortable, having foreign energy so close to my soul, traditional magic doesn't mingle with the user's soul as much as aura does.

I haven't come across any side effects yet but given that my soul was almost remodeled by an ancient evil dragon I only use that ability sparingly as a precaution.

"That's an amazing semblance, you're like a tank and healer wrapped into one." Pyrrha praised." The image of an ambulance with monster truck tires came to mind.

"Why thank you for the praise but warn me if you feel the urge to call me god pharaoh, I don't have the best track record dealing with a flock." She quirked her eyebrow at my internal joke.

Our trek to the ruins went without a hitch, casting a quick spell when Pyrrha and the cameras couldn't spot the glow, to keep the Grimm from noticing us. Shit hit the fan though when we met up with everyone else.

I had to break the spell for appearances sake and low and behold a deathstalker and a nevermore show up. Ruby decided that she was going to charge the deathstalker on her own.

That ended with her retreating with little damage taken by the Grimm, getting caught on one of the Nevermore`s feathers, Weiss saving her and having a heart to heart about being partners, it was very dramatic.

We finally get to the bottom of the cliff and the two Grimm finally catchup. Ruby Weiss, Blake, and Yang decide to take on the bird and the rest of us are left with the deathstalker.

After hitting it a few times to no effect I decided that I could go for the big one and save us some time, and my partner could carry me the rest of the way afterwards because this was going to eat a lot of my aura. The only consolation was that I would get to be carried by Pyrrha.

What I didn't have in CQC skill I made up for in aura size, control, and my semblance. My sword was designed to channel aura like all hunter weapons, using my semblance to enhance the aura in my blade, arms and legs, I charge almost as fast as Weiss with her glyphs to the face of the deathstalker, and swung downwards.

The blade sung as it cut through the deathstalker, like a beast declaring that it had won the fight. The deathstalker was split in two.

Before I could pat myself on the back the strain on my limbs hit me and I fell to my knees exhausted. Looking back at Ren, Pyrrha and Nora I could see them gaping at my work. Smiling I called out "If your done marveling at my greatness I could use a hand because that left me pretty much out of gas."

That snapped them back into reality. Ren and Pyrrha grab me by my arms, (consolation prize won) and hall me up. Nora is firing off questions in full auto and I had to stop her to prevent a headache.

"Quiet so I can explain" that shuts her up. "My semblance is aura enhancement. I used it to push my strength and sword's sharpness past what is normal to take out Grimm. Unfortunately, using it to increase my attack strength strains my muscles and I have to keep my semblance active to repair the damage so I am almost useless for a few minutes afterwards and a good chunk of my aura is used up in recovery."

Now that that was out of the way we all turned to watch Ruby run up a cliff with a giant Nevermore in tow and behead it at the top in a spectacular fashion. A lot more time consuming but she isn't wiped out from it like I am. Still I am impressed with both her groups` and mine`s performance, this should be an interesting year at Beacon academy for me.


	2. Chapter 2

Change has come to Remnant.

That was all Ozpin knew, something had changed, shifted in the world, and he could not tell if it was for good or for ill. Seven years ago, he felt a surge of power, pure unrivaled cosmic power the likes of which he had not felt since the gods cursed him.

Yet it was completely foreign to him. This did not feel like the gods who have long since gone silent. This was much more powerful then them. More powerful and for a moment, it was unbridled. Who or what had such power that it could be felt by him yet not pinpointed due to its blinding strength was cause for concern.

For years his inner circle searched for the cause of that surge, surely something that powerful would be easy to spot? He feared that the death toll would be the herald of this new entity, but nothing happened, no natural disasters or anything strange happened for about a year. Then, something did happen.

Reports of settlements being protected from the Grimm by strange forcefields came in. At first, he thought they were the product of fear during an attack or hunters drinking too much. Then Qrow reported the same thing and with photos of what was protecting the villages. Hedrons with a script etched into all their surfaces and possibly inside of them.

Ozpin went to study these monuments himself, and what he discovered upon seeing them shocked him to his core. They had magic. These Hedrons where using magic to create a field that repelled the Grimm. They also contained a faint trace of the entity's power that he felt before.

He couldn't make heads or tails of how they functioned other then the obvious fact that they protect the area they surround and that the script on their surfaces was probably a language used to control them. How to manipulate them or even what else they could do was something that he could not grasp at this moment. He would let Ironwood know that these Hedrons used magic and that Atlas`s scientists and scholars should be brought in to study them. He was only one man after all, and he couldn't dedicate his time to unravelling the mystery of these wonderous artifacts.

It did help answer one question of his though. The entity that released all that power made these, and it made them with the intent of protecting the people who lived within the circle of hedrons.

For now, he could breathe a little easier knowing that he did not have another Salem on his hands. At least not yet, while the gift was indeed wonderous Ozpin could not help but worry that this entity might be using these hedrons to fence in humanity like cattle waiting to be slaughtered. While unlikely, it was still a possibility that kept him on edge.

More of these safe zones kept popping up, and only on the continent of Anima. Qrow was losing his mind trying to track down who or what was setting these things up, it got to the point that he almost always was in a drunken haze, which lead to a dumb idea that paid off.

He decided to turn into a crow and sleep in a tree in the woods outside the village he was staking out in hopes that he would spot the magical bigfoot. What he saw was a colossal dragon doing magic.

Ozpin first asked if Qrow had switched to drugs over booze, but the next night stone cold sober and in the village next door he saw it again, even got a picture of its back to prove he wasn't high as a kite. Turned out though that after he switched to human form and took that shaky picture the dragon noticed it was being watched and shot fire from it mouth and then disappeared, as if by magic Qrow had said, which at this point was probably true.

The picture that Qrow took was out of focus and hard to get a good look at the creature but the silhouette told you it was a bipedal lizard with wings, and the scorched backside of the hunter said the fire was real.

So, reality warping magical dragon was the only conclusion at this point, oh and Qrow said it might have been wearing armor. Ozpin was seriously considering joining the drunken reaper in his trips to the bar, but experience from a previous life stopped him. The Dragon was never seen again after that and the safe zones stopped popping up.

He was a little disappointed with the last one, but it told him more about the, now known dragon. It was secretive, maybe benevolent, highly intelligent in order to make the hedrons and hide itself, and really, really didn't like to be snuck up on, but the most important thing he knew was that it had magic. This was also the most perplexing.

He and Salem were supposed to be the only people with magic in the world, aside from the maidens. Yet here was a dragon of all things, with more magical power then he ever had, hell even the gods didn't have that much power on their own. Where did it come from? Why is it here now? And what is its goal?

Maybe the new students could shed some light on this mystery. Jaune Arc, one of the first years to arrive and go through initiation, and perhaps the key to this little puzzle.

His performance during the test was quite impressive. He also carried a small trace of the dragon`s power. Not enough to suggest that the dragon gifted him power like Ozpin did with the maidens, but enough to suggest that he had come in contact with the dragon at some point.

The only problem was how to approach him. The dragon had shown to be fiercely protective of itself and might know if we stress the boy. Not that that was an option Ozpin wanted to resort to, he did have morals, and it was possible that Jaune could be unaware of the mark left on him or even who put it there. For now, he would have to wait and see which cards where played in the hopes that the dragon would reveal his hand, and not burn the table.

Jaune would say that being part Elder Dragon Planeswalker had more upsides then downsides. The intellect boost made homework and strategy games easy, he knew more about magic then most and could use it, and obviously he could turn into a giant fire breathing badass.

This all made the homicidal psychopathic voice in the back of his mind tolerable, especially when that knowledge came with a way to almost silence said voice, but in the morning, he cursed that part of himself. Apparently, Elder Dragons don't like to wake up, or be woken up until they feel like it. For Jaune this usually means about ten hours of being dead to the world, or someone else becoming dead, followed by a nap.

Of course, Nora had to be the one to poke the dragon. When all she got was a growl that would have sent any sane person running, she decided to up the ante.

She tried to jump on top of him, key word, tried. Just as she was about to land on top of him, he pounced. She didn't know how it happened, only that she was on the floor with the scariest thing she had ever seen on top of her. "Nora" it said with such sweetness covering the intended threat you could almost believe it was Jaune talking and not this monster.

"Don't wake me up ever again, unless you want to end up as kibble" it spoke with such malice that all she could do was nod frantically in hopes that it would crawl back to the pit from whence it came.

Satisfied that its doctrine was established the demon slithered slash crawled back into its blanket cave.

Ren and Pyrrha, who where cowering in the corner, couldn't believe that a human body could move like that, but then again whatever their leader just turned into was decidedly not human. Only when they heard snoring did Ren speak. "Our leader is terrifying." No one could argue, in fact Nora might say that he was understating it.

None of them saw their leader until they got to breakfast in the cafeteria. He was just sitting there eating some sausage and smiling, like he didn't just scare them witless.

Once he spotted them he grinned even wider and waved them over. They warily made their way over to him, this was something he noticed.

"Uh guys, why are you acting like I'm a Grimm?"

Nora was still shaken and Pyrrha dumbfounded, so Ren again had to take up speaking.

"Nora tried to wake you up and then you pinned her to the floor and threatened to turn her into kibble in the best impersonation of an angry dragon I will ever see in my life."

The color drained from Jaune's face. "Crap I forgot to tell you, I sleep like the dead and if someone tries to wake me I kind of lose it but never remember any of it, I`m so sorry Nora."

He had the best kicked puppy face any of them had ever seen, unshed tears and everything. If not for the recent terror they all would have let their guard down.

"You lose it? Jaune, you slithered back to bed like a snake after Nora agreed to not wake you up ever again, how did you even pull that off?" Pyrrha exclaimed.

"Really I only threatened her? That's an improvement."

"Don't change the subject!" Pyrrha shouted, getting team RWBY`s attention.

"What`s the matter guys?" Ruby asked in concern.

"Nora tried to wake Jaune up and he turned into a demon, threatened to turn her into dog food then crawled back into bed in the best imitation of a snake I will ever see, and now we are interrogating him." Pyrrha ranted.

A small, scaly part of Jaune liked it when she was mad, but he wasn't about to say it. Team RWBY decided that the grilling was worth watching and now all eyes were on Jaune, he sighed.

"Guys I have never remembered any of these incidents but I do know that they have happened from my sisters telling me, I have never needed an alarm clock so they just leave me be now and I didn't want to tell you guys cause it's kind of embarrassing and if I told you I think Nora would have tried anyways just to test it."

Nora started whistling, proving Jaune`s point, Pyrrha calmed down and Ren was as Stoic as ever. RWBY on the other hand was on the floor laughing. Nora didn't like this

"If its so funny then why don't you guys try waking him up tomorrow." She challenged.

"I gave my warning, I am not responsible for any injuries incurred from trying to wake me." Jaune stated with resignation, for the look on RWBY`s faces said they where going to try waking him up in the future.

Most of the classes where fairly standard. History interested Jaune, considering he had the history of several worlds inside his head to compare it with so it wasn't as boring for him, and the professor`s rapid rate of speech wasn't a problem for a mind reader.

Grimm studies was coma inducing for him though. All the professor talked about was how he killed them and what weak points each type had. Jaune and Ugin did more research in a month then all of Remnant did in millennia.

The Spirit Dragon was curious and Jaune was retraining his skill with magic at the time. Turns out the Grimm are like the gods of Amonket, but aren't made of leylines, just the energy from them.

Their connection to the world was stronger then the angels of Innistrad but they weren't a natural occurrence like the angels were.

Which begs the question, who or what created them, and continues to do so?

Ugin and Jaune never got to answer that question, but Jaune had a feeling that the answer would reveal itself in time. One of the answers they did get was that counter magic worked on both the Grimm, and a person`s aura.

Further testing revealed that Jaune in his dragon form wasn't vulnerable to this. Something the Spirit Dragon had an answer for. His spirit was split between what it was and who he is now, which body he is in changes which aspect grows stronger.

The Elder Dragon half was a magically resistant creature, the Remnant human half didn't grow up in an environment like Dominaria and thus didn't have a resistance to it. That being said, it took quite a lot of power to drop his aura shield, probably a lot more then what it would take to bring down a regular huntsman`s aura.

Professor Port managed to break him out of his reverie, when he asked for volunteers to demonstrate how to take down a couple of Grimm. Weiss seemed eager and Jaune wanted something to relieve his boredom, so he volunteered as well

"This is a surprise Mr. Arc, I guess you can go first." Professor Port stated.

Jaune only brought back his sword from the lockers.

"Mr. Arc, I don't think you want to damage your uniform." Port chided.

"Don't worry sir I won`t." Jaune boasted.

The Grimm was going to the slaughterhouse and Jaune was the butcher. This would be one of those times that he would indulge in his urge to kill, to prove that he was the most dangerous thing in the room.

Port cut the chains holding the door closed, the Grimm came out of the box ready to fight.

Jaune waited, _Nicol Bolas does not chase his prey he waits until it challenges him,_ the Grimm charges him, _then he toys with them,_ Jaune timed it perfectly, his hand came out like a snake striking, catching it by the throat.

 _Showing that no matter what they do he will win._ The Grimm struggled but Jaune`s enhanced aura prevented any of its limbs from doing any damage, just as the beast started to slow he tossed it to the other end of the room.

 _But that is not enough for him he has to see the despair in your eyes._ Jaune stood rooted to the spot. Nothing the boar like Grimm did made him move, all it got for its efforts were choke holds and beatings over the head with his sheathed sword.

 _When you realize that all your efforts are futile, and hope has left you, that is when he comes to reap his rewards and your life._ The Grimm was too weak to stand, from all the strikes to the head and lack of air.

Jaune walked up to it casually, like he was going for a leisurely stroll through the park. When he stood before the Grimm he drew his sword and stabbed it through the exhausted creatures head, ending its life and his entertainment.

The class was silent none of them had see someone dominate a Grimm, not kill but beat into submission, in such a fashion that it left everyone watching, both in awe and fear.

The collective thought they all had was "I hope I never have to fight that monster."

Port broke the silence "A most amazing demonstration Mr. Arc, class I think we are in the presence of a true huntsmen in the making. Ms. Schnee it is your turn."

Jaune took his seat to watch Weiss. She struggled at first and snapped at Ruby to stop breaking her focus.

Jaune could see where this was heading. After class Weiss and Ruby had a shouting match about her being team leader.

Jaune saw that Ozpin was going to talk to Ruby so he went to go find Weiss. When he did she was sitting on a bench in the courtyard.

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asked.

"If you must know, I have no clue as to why the headmaster thought that that child could lead our team better then me." She huffed, forgetting in her anger that, Jaune had delivered a verbal smackdown a few days ago.

"If you cannot see why you might not be suited to be leader then Ozpin made the right choice." He stated simply, no sense beating around the bush.

"Excuse me?" she exclaimed in that typical rich girl shrill.

"Tell me Weiss, what made your grandfather such a respected leader and businessman?" That threw her for a loop, but she recovered and answered.

"He created an empire that distributes dust, the life blood of technology, around the world." She said. "All true but not what made him someone people where willing to follow."

She gave me this look of confusion.

"He started off working in dust mines and took a risk that created the empire you now live off of. He was just like everyone else who worked in those mines and knew what the dangers of working in them was and did what he could to mitigate the risks to the workers. The lowest people under him could see some of themselves in him, what they could be and that those at the top can care about the little guy."

Realization colored her face but he pushed on.

"People call you ice queen because you are closed off, you show none of the compassion your grandfather was famous for. Even now you stand there like a statue made of ice, cold and unfeeling, only concerned about yourself and what you feel you deserve. A leader of huntsman needs to put his team before himself. You are more likely to get your team killed for pride and that's if they don't mutiny first."

She wanted to say something, but all of his words struck true silencing her.

"Ruby on the other hand joined because she wants to help people, to be a hero, any decision she makes is going either be for the good of the people that she protects or her team. It's because of this that she is the leader despite her young age, if you want to be a leader I suggest that you learn how to care about others first." He concluded.

It was harsh but Jaune wasn`t one for pulling punches. He left her to think about his words, he had a red haired warrior princess to find and as much as it hurt his pride, ask her for help.


	3. Chapter 3

Pride is something every dragon has, even the most primitive ones will not bow before a weaker master.

So why is it so hard to ask Pyrrha to train me in swordplay? She is clearly the master between us, yet my inner fire breathing lizard is digging his heals in on it. In all the years I`ve had to deal with him he`s never been so stubborn.

There she is, walking down the hall with the grace of a dancer. Even in the school uniform she is breathtaking, and realization hit me like a bucket of ice water.

My inner dragon sees her as a potential mate. None of the one-night stands of the past got this kind of a reaction from him.

Just to clarify dragon mates are not some magical soul bond, at least not for Dominarian dragons.

A dragon mate is more akin to a wife, a personal commitment that can be broken if it`s detrimental to the dragon. The instinct that identifies a potential mate is just a more fine-tuned feeling that a human would get when they decide that they want to marry someone, because I am currently human I missed the signs.

This explains why my inner dragon doesn`t want to consider taking lessons from Pyrrha on swordplay. He doesn't want to appear weak in front of her.

Now that I know what the problem is I can work around it. Separating Bolas from myself was the first thing Ugin taught me.

The only downside is that my personality shifts. In short, I become an awkward teenager, the wisdom of Bolas is still there but fuzzy, like a fog surrounds that part of my mind.

I quickly catch up to her and tap her on the shoulder.

"Pyrrha, could you meet me on the roof after class?" She smiles and nods in agreement, not that I was really paying attention her smile held all my focus.

Once she left my brain rebooted, guess the dragon isn't the only one enamored by her.

The end of classes for the day came sooner than expected, I was waiting on the top of the landing on the roof. Normally I don't get nervous but without the presence of Bolas I felt exposed and had no idea how to deal with it. Is this what teenage angst is?

Before I could continue that line of thought she appeared, as beautiful as ever.

"So, what is it you wanted to talk about?" she asked.

Cue sweaty palms.

"I need to ask you for a favor."

Her eyebrow quirked.

"Nothing perverted or anything like that not that you're not hot enough for something like that, I mean-"

Her giggle stopped my word vomiting thank Oum. That giggle evolved into a full belly laugh.

Bolas was banging his head against the bars of the mental cage I stuffed him in.

Once she recovered she said "Oh Jaune it`s nice to see that you are a real boy after all."

I tilted my head at that.

"I mean, the way you carry yourself and the way you fight spoke of someone with a god complex worse then Weiss." I let that little jab slide, along with Bolas`s laughing.

"Seeing you stammer just gave me hope that we could be friends."

My heart flutters, he purrs.

"Now what is this favor you wanted to ask of me?"

Oh right.

"Could you teach me how to use a sword?"

I've never seen anyone face fault as perfectly as she did when I said that. "Why would you need someone to teach you how to use a sword don't you already know how?"

I scratched the back of my head.

"I actually don't know anything about swordplay, what I have been doing is using my semblance to enhance my strikes and defense to power through fights, if I wasn't using it my lack of technique would have become obvious."

"The academy that you went to didn't think they should teach you?" she questioned.

"I never went to an academy."

"Jaune, no one can get into a huntsmen academy without recommendation from one of the junior academies."

I guess there was no hiding it.

"I forged my documents."

Seeing the shocked look on her face I gave her a minute to process.

"Why?" was all she asked and I replied

"My family has been known for its hunters and war heroes, I am the youngest of eight children and the only son, all of my sisters are accomplished huntresses, my father, saw no reason to risk the continuation of the Arc family name. I convinced a huntsman who was a family friend to unlock my aura as a failsafe

( _more like Jedi mind controlled an unsuspecting victim, but she doesn't need to know that)_

and trained in secret on my own eventually finding out my semblance was aura enhancement, everything I`ve been able to do is self-taught."

Close to the truth but not giving away the big secrets, the best way to lie. "When the time came I got my hands on some transcripts and came here, I give it another month before my family shows up and try to take me back."

And I'm not looking forward to it, I wonder if Vale will still be standing when that`s over. Once I finished my story she remained silent, taking in what I had told her.

Finally, when the silence was about to become uncomfortable she asked.

"Why did you do it? train in secret, lie to your family and run away from them?"

It sounded like she was asking two questions but that didn't matter, I answered anyways

"Because no one gets to decide how I live my life but me, I love my family but they do not own me, I grew up with the tales of my ancestors achievements and now they want to stop me from trying to be like them? To be more then them? Just so that the family name`s continuation is assured? No, I will not be shackled by responsibilities others place on me, the only promises I keep are the ones I make myself, and if destiny tries to stop me I will fight it with everything I have. My life is my own and no one will take that away from me without getting burned."

The smothering I get from my family and the frustration to go with it was something that I had been holding in for a long time, it felt great to just let it all out to someone.

Dragons and planeswalkers tend to put a premium on personal freedom, but someone who was both?

I had planned years in advance to go to Beacon, getting documents as inscrutable as mine takes time. Waiting for a huntsman to pass through town and discreetly get them to unlock my aura pushed my patience to the limit.

Keeping my training both with Ugin and aura unnoticed was a challenge. I love my parents and sisters but, on the day, I left for Beacon, it felt like I was holding my breath, and now I could breathe.

To quote that villain from that movie with the heroes "there are no strings on me." I am free to be who I am here, well at least more then back home.

Pyrrha`s voice brought me back to reality, her expression confused me, why does she look like the one who cut her strings?

"I will help you in any way I can, not just swordplay but if you need someone to stand by you when your parents come for you, I will be right there, Jaune."

The conviction in her words warmed my heart and almost left me at a loss for words.

"Thank you" I whispered.

Nothing else could convey how her words made me feel. For so long I felt alone, estranged family and a Spirit Dragon unable to understand human emotion where all I had for company. Now maybe I could find people to call friends.

"This time tomorrow we will start your training." She said with such authority that I was nodding in acceptance. The gleam in her eye worried me, what monster had I awoken? With those parting words she left.

After she left I heard someone climbing up the outside wall, not very well I might add. Cardin turned out to be the one who was just below the balcony, if that didn't set off alarm bells in my head them the nasty smirk on his face did. It was a look I knew well, for it was an expression I wore in another lifetime.

"Well look what we have here, a little liar." Cardin said with such malicious intent I was almost impressed.

"What do you want Cardin?" I asked in a bored tone.

While he thinks I should be worried the fact of the matter is that I already have several backup plans ready, now to see what he wants.

"Oh, nothing friend, we are friends, right? Friends keep each other`s secrets and help each other out, like that homework professor Port assigned us. Do you think you could do that for me?"

This is what he came up with? This attempt at blackmail was so elementary I decided to go with plan 'Let the Dragon Out'.

The reconnection to Bolas was like a limb that had fallen asleep regaining feeling. Whatever anxiety I felt about this extortion attempt was washed away. Using mind magic would be a waste on this worm, and seeing the fear in his eyes was something Bolas and I were going to take vindictive pleasure in.

"Well Jauney boy what's it going to augh!"

His sentence was cut off by my hand wrapping around his throat and lifting him off his feet. I walked him over to the edge of the building and dangled him in the open air.

"Now I am only going to say this once so you better listen good, being at this school is something I worked hard to get, and no one is going to threaten that, so if you even think about telling anyone about what you heard tonight, I will find you, and I will take you back to this roof and drop you off it like I should do right now!"

I shook him, and he squealed as best he could with his throat in my hand.

"And your aura will not be able to save you from this fall."

To prove my point, I coated my finger with aura and a layer of counter magic then dragged it along his cheek, the cut was clean and bleeding. If he`s lucky it won't scar.

The fear in his eyes was like a drug for me, better wrap this up before I sink to far into that darkness within. I brought him away from the ledge and let him go he was on the ground gasping for breath.

"So, friend, this night never happened right?" I asked with honeyed words that delivered the threat of violence so much more effectively then shouting.

He took time out of his wheezing to nod franticly like his life depended on it. With that I took my leave to sleep for the night.

Third person POV

Team RWBY decided that this morning was the morning that they would try and wake Jaune up before he was ready.

It didn't end well for them.

All anyone saw was four girls trying to escape a dorm room but being dragged back in, followed by screams of agony. If it wasn't for the screams it would have looked funny, good thing NPR was keeping anyone from getting caught in the crossfire.

Once the lambs stopped screaming you could see the results. All of them where cut and bruised, nothing uncommon at beacon, clothes torn and disheveled. The only sign that something horrible happened was the look of fear in their eyes.

"Never again." Ruby said.

"You got that right," Yang added.

"Why didn't we listen?" Weiss asked.

"I have met snake faunus, and none of them could move like that." Blake added, not caring that she almost revealed she herself was a faunus.

"We told you."

You could tell that Nora was getting a kick out of their misfortune. Ren was smiling on the inside and Pyrrha was happy that she had friends that she could joke with like this.

After RWBY changed out of their rags, the group of seven went to get breakfast. Jaune would catch up with them after his nap. Ruby was the one to notice something unusual this morning.

"Guys, not that anyone would care but don't you think that Cardin is acting a little weird?"

All of them turned to look at him and had to agree that Cardin was behaving strangely. There was a bandaged cut on his cheek, didn't little wounds heal fast with aura? and his eyes had bags under them, yet they were alert and looking around franticly, even his own team didn't know what had gotten into him.

Jaune chose this moment to walk in, looking as good as he always did, if not for the short time it takes for him to get ready, his friends would think that he was as paranoid about his appearance as Yang was her hair. If it wasn't creepy NPR would have spied on him in the washroom to learn his secrets. Once Cardin spotted him he got even more skittish than before.

"What did you do to Cardin to have him so afraid of you?" Yang asked.

The bully had been throwing his weight around all week, everyone was getting fed up with it. If they had turned to a certain bunny faunus they would have seen a smile grace her lips at Cardin`s behavior.

"He looks like the last person I didn't like after they woke me up from a nap." He said with a bit of smugness that kind of scared them. Who knew Jaune could be so vindictive?

Pyrrha found it kind of hot though, he carried out justice in the most effective ways, yet was not needlessly cruel, as far as she had seen. Add on his little speech last night about how he did not let anyone hold him down with their expectations and she was falling for him, even if she didn't know she was yet.

Jaune POV

While I have traveled to other planes while training with Ugin, I have found that it is often the simple things that are beautiful. Gardens that are trimmed to perfection feel shallow to me, all that makes each plant unique stripped away.

The wild forests of Zendikar that sometimes get up and walk away were breathtaking in that they hid many unique plants and wildlife within their everchanging landscape. Forever fall forest was among the top ten. The red leaves that lived up to their name entranced me with their flawed beauty.

It made up for the fact that we were here for such a boring field trip. I get why we are out here, you can`t send civilians to collect the sap and everyone else is overqualified.

I went from being busy all the time with training and faking documents for years to having free time, it`s hard to just take a breath and slow down after that. How ironic, I, the one who probably needs R&R the most, am the one complaining about it.

Watching Ren try and fill the bottomless pit that is Nora was hilarious. Pyrrha`s hips swaying while she worked was a free show, and Weiss was out of her element in the forest so that got a few chuckles out of me. I finished filling up enough jars for me, Ren and Nora ( _magic for the win_ ) because I can see a lost cause a mile away.

CRDL was no where to be seen, that didn't bod well, for them that is. After casting mild compulsion spells to slip away from my team unnoticed, I searched for them. They weren't far away, and not up to anything good. The buzzing in the box they had was a giveaway.

"What would four upstanding huntsmen such as yourselves be doing with rapier wasps on a nice day like today?" I asked with so much sarcasm you could sell it to a comedian.

They all froze but Cardin went pale, poking around in his head I found my answer, and I didn't like it. The next moment Cardin found himself in a familiar chokehold and the rest of his team was frozen by magic bindings, they where going to get a show.

"Cardin did you know that rapier wasps produce ten times more venom when they have been stressed for long periods of time? it`s so much that it could actually kill someone if they are stung enough times." The chill in my voice stole whatever warmth the sun had brought.

"You where going to throw it at my team weren't you?" I asked rhetorically.

My trip into his mind found that he was jealous of Pyrrha beating him in combat class and that he was hoping that the wasps would kill me. If it wasn't for the cold rage taking over I would have given him credit for efficiency.

"Well now I guess its time for a lesson, after all we are in school to learn, how about a demonstration of an eye for an eye?" I threatened.

His just mentioned eyes got wider, perfect.

I started to reach for his right one. This is what he gets for trying to hurt Pyrrha I thought. Just as my fingers touched his face I realized that thought was not my own, it was Bolas`s!

My hand started to shake, the effort to regain control was nothing short of monumental. After what felt like a lifetime I let go of Cardin, he was on the ground hyperventilating, once he got enough air he got angry.

"You crazy psychopath! I don't care what happens, you are getting expelled if it's the last thing I do!" he shouted, the hypocrisy would have continued if I hadn't put him and his team in a mind lock.

I got the idea from that other superhero movie, the one with the bald paraplegic.

This loss of control was more concerning, Ugin said it could happen sometimes until my two personalities settled, didn`t make what I was about to do any less sickening. I never intended to hurt Cardin, not now nor when I dangled him off the roof, just scare him.

Bolas and I have almost always been at odds with one another, his thoughts and feelings on things a stark contrast to my own. Easy to identify and push out when needed.

This time though, we were both mad about Pyrrha, the potential mate, being threatened. The line between him and me was blurred and he used that lapse to take control. Thank Oum he`s only the broken remains of Nico Bolas`s conscience or I would be trapped inside my own head and Cardin missing an eye.

Now what to do about these four? Memory manipulation always left a bad taste in my mouth after seeing how much I abused it in my past life, but it was necessary to clean up this mess.

Cardin wouldn't remember any of the violence I threatened him with, he would think he had a run in with sleepy Jaune that night I hung him over the ledge, I tell people I don't remember but I always get hazy snippets of those episodes, enough to make the fake memory believable.

This more recent incident would be an Ursa attack. The three stooges began to run screaming about one. Once they left I let Cardin go with the false memory of me saving him and the illusion of the dead Ursa disintegrating. I told him to never threaten my team again in the most stereotypical main character voice that I almost vomited.

It seemed that everything was in order and that my sins were erased, but little did I know that someone had seen the whole thing and she was terrified at what I almost did. You reap what you sow as the saying goes.


	4. Chapter 4

_This is my first ever author's note so let's see how this goes. To all those who have left comments telling me how much you like this fic, thank you. Hearing that you like it is what motivates me to write. To those who left constructive reviews I also thank you, you help me become a better writer and I hope that you continue to help me make this story as good as I can. Writing is a hobby of mine, but work comes first because I like eating, all of these chapters are first drafts with spell check I simply don't have the time heavily edit them. I want to find someone to prof read them but then updates would take longer than they already do. With that said I will try to update sooner but I make no promises other then to try. For those of you waiting for an update to Arcstrider I have about half of the next chapter written and will get it finished as soon as I can._

 _Justus3138_

These last month has been a dream. My team was quirky granted, but I wouldn't trade them for anyone else, especially Pyrrha. She says that I am a genius at swordplay, picking up all the techniques she teaches me in half the time it took her to learn them.

Now if only I could beat her in one of our sparring matches, the fact that she wasn't using her semblance to win was burning the pride of Bolas, mine too if I`m being honest. Oh well, I was the youngest of the Elder Dragons and later became the most powerful, it was just a matter of dedication to the goal and time.

One of the most horrifying sounds I have ever known broke me out of plotting Pyrrha`s downfall. Now I got to worry about my own.

I booked it down the hallway that me and my team where walking down, I had no time to tell them why a female cackling would motivate me to go into a dead run.

That horrible laugh was the prequel to so many tortures, being put into a dress being one of the worst. Me and Bolas found it so humiliating that a couple of times we chose grim infested forest over another game of dress up. Which was exactly what I was doing right now, the Emerald Forest was big enough that I could hide from her.

It was only when I got to the forest that that my brain started to think and the first conclusion it came to was that this is a trap. Why was she chasing rather than catching me and why did it take so long for my family to locate and then come after me?

I got my answer when the rest of them popped out of the trees, the whole family, minus Saphron, the only non hunter of the family.

That's why it took so long, getting everyone back from hunts and homes together was probably a challenge. It shows either how much they love me or how mad they all are, probably both.

"So, this is where you have been hiding, I must admit I didn't think you would be able to get into an academy, how did you get ahold of transcripts?" My father Urobilin Arc asked like he was talking about the weather.

This man was dangerous, that much I knew, and he was angry.

"I made copies of my sister's transcripts and used them as templates, the tough part was getting them into the recommending schools system, took years to do it." I rubbed into his nose.

Judging by the scrunching of said nose I think I succeeded.

"Well this farce stops now, your coming home before you shame the Arc name, it a wonder that the faculty haven't figured out that you can`t fight and thrown you out." He drawled out like he was talking to a child who had disappointed him, it would have gotten the reaction he was looking for if I didn't have a big surprise waiting for him.

"Back to the gilded cage? No, if you want me to go back your going to have to break every bone in my body and I will guarantee that you will definitely have more then a few broken yourself by the time you break the first." I snarled like the dragon I am.

Their befuddlement let me draw my sword, they had never seen me like this, I always kept the raging beast in check around my sisters, they acted like real family mom too, but dad was a real struggle.

So many times, I wanted to give into my anger and rain down judgement upon him, but I had to wait, I wasn't strong enough to win that fight without using magic, my pride wouldn`t tolerate having to admit defeat to him in any way.

As it was I still didn't know if I could beat him without magic, if I was to win a duel with him I would have to fight dirty, no code of honor, good thing me and Bolas excelled at those kinds of tactics.

"You are a hundred years to early to face me." Father said, the nod of his head was all the warning I got before my eldest sister, Sapphire, attempted to knock me out from behind.

She was the most protective of me and even though she disagreed with father`s method she agreed that I should not be a huntsman, almost made me feel bad about what I was about to do. I enhanced the aura at the back of my neck.

When someone knife strikes with their hand against something that is harder then they expect, broken bones are generally the result and this case was no different.

She let out a scream of shock and was on the ground clutching her broken hand, the pain baffled her and that was all the time I needed. I grabbed her by the back of her neck with my left hand and threw her towards this life's father.

"Like I said, anyone trying to bring me home is going to walk away with broken bones, now I think it would be easier on everyone if you simply left without me." I snarked, knowing that he wasn't going to.

"So, you have unlocked your aura, doesn`t matter, but if it's a duel with me you want then I will oblige." He said while drawing his own sword. I readied my shield, Urobilin looked unconcerned, probably thinking that I was going to be a pushover, well he was going to get a rude awakening.

He lunged at me with a simple thrust, the look on his face when I barreled into him with my shield was priceless, his face landing in the dirt was a bonus.

After that he took me seriously, even so I still held my own, using everything I learned from Pyrrha to keep his weapon from scoring any direct hits. Unfortunately, he too was skilled and experienced, none of my strikes connected with anything but air or his sword.

"Who taught you to fight?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

It almost distracted me, but I wasn't fooled, in fact this was a psychological opening for me.

"My partner Pyrrha Nikos, did you know that I was made team leader? Guess Ozpin is not as blind as you, good thing too, otherwise Vale would be overrun with grim while he preened himself."

He didn't get angry, he was too experienced for that, but the leader comment made him pause for a moment. That moment allowed me to charge a heavy hit with my semblance and sword.

He blocked it with his sword but that didn't matter. The strike broke the joint lock in his elbow, and the force generated from my aura and semblance enhanced slash pushed his sword against his body and sent him flying across the clearing they caught me in.

I didn't have enough time to charge up a one-shot strike, but it definitely took a huge chunk of his aura and rung his bell really good if the shaking of his head was anything to go by. On the plus side the strike wasn't strong enough to cause me any harm, just a tingling in my arm.

"I will admit, you are not as incompetent in combat as I thought you would be."

I could hear his teeth grinding when he said that.

"My aura has been unlocked for years, and for years I practiced control, my semblance, aura enhancement, complements that control rather nicely if that huge chunk of your aura I took out is anything to go by." I said.

There was no reason to keep it hidden anymore, that last hit would have clued him in to my abilities with aura, so might as well taunt him.

It worked, his scowling face was a work of art that I had created. We would have continued our duel if we hadn't heard the growls and caws of multiple grim.

The negative emotions of me and father wouldn't have attracted all of these grim, what could the rest of the family have been feeling in order to attract all of these grim?

My sisters where proving why they graduated from the other academies, they cut through the swarm of grim like a mower through grass, mom was in the thick of it as well, her two short swords slash hand cannons making short work of the enemy.

The nevermore overhead where being taken out by the youngest of my sisters, Aqua Arc.

She always had something to prove, while she wasn't outright denied like I was, her right to train always hinged on her performance, this often led to her taking risks that others wouldn`t. Like jumping from nevermore to nevermore, cutting them at the base of the neck, efficient but leaving her completely open.

That was proven true when one of the grim decided to knock her off target mid jump, she wasn't moving, **Merrevia Sal was going to die**! Who? My sister? No, none of my sisters go by that name. **Merrevia Sal, the sister who was killed just after hatching.** Wait, hatching? A dragon sister who died just after hatching, why didn't I remember her? My head hurt, why were these memories blocked?

Once my internal strife was put aside I found another shit storm to deal with. Aqua was safe in my hand, my big, three fingered scaly, dragon hand, this day couldn't get any worse.

Aqua POV

Today was not going to plan, to be fair the last few months haven't been going as I expected. Jaune, my little brother, had run away, that was a shock. He had never acted out since that camping trip, before that he always pestered everyone to teach him how to be a huntsman.

Dad denied him, his reason of him being the only male Arc to inherit the family title was always something that confused me, the Schnee just married in a male to take over, not that it was a success story but still why did dad want Jaune away from danger?

Sapphire was the one to tell me, we like the Schnee have a hereditary semblance, this was something I already knew and was waiting to show in me, what I didn't know was that only the men in our family inherit it, that sucked.

Mom and dad kept trying for a boy to keep the family semblance going, and finally on the eighth kid she gave birth to a boy. After Jaune mom couldn't have any more kids, the strain would be too much for her.

Sapphire said that dad was much more relaxed before mom became pregnant with Jaune. Personally, I think he was always a jackass and this just brought it out, who knows.

Dad never told Jaune this and forbade any of us to tell him, his reason was that he didn't want to encourage Jaune to be a huntsman with the fact that his semblance was going to be overpowered.

Fat lot of good that did, the little hellion tried to convince dad for three years when he was seven and found a book about grandpa. After our camping trip when he was ten and he and dad had a big fight about it he stopped asking.

At first, I thought that he had simply given up but when he ran away I put the pieces together. The sneaky little bugger had been planning to go to Beacon, I found him a week after he left but I kept silent, even trying to get the rest of the family to look elsewhere. Jaune deserved to be able to live his life how he wanted to.

Once dad found out where he was he was furious, he got all of us to go with him and bring Jaune back home. The whole trip I felt like I was going to Jaune`s execution.

Azure went to chase Jaune towards the forest, dad said he didn't want Ozpin interfering, guess that's why we destroyed all those cameras. Seeing Jaune run at full sprint brought back fond memories of me and Azure playing dress up with him.

His attire though was puzzling. Armor wasn't cheap or quick to make and in a small town like ours, not easy to hide. So where did he get custom made armor of such a high quality? I knew it was custom from how well it fit him, and the long coat was a nice touch, guess dress up did teach Jaune something besides how to run fast.

Dad planned it out with Sapphire, she always was daddy`s girl, she moved in behind Jaune to knock him out.

Then the impossible happened.

Her hand broke on contact with Jaune`s neck. He had his aura unlocked and found his semblance in the span of a few months? Dad decided to fight him, I guess he didn't want to waste anymore time, even if Jaune unlocked his aura, a full-fledged huntsman would mope the floor with someone who didn't have any training.

Then he surprises me again. He does know how to fight, well in fact. Pyrrha Nikos trained him! She`s his partner? Damn, he doesn't do anything in halves. That last solid hit on dad that sent him flying was particularly satisfying for me.

Now if only this horde of grim didn't show up, everyone thinks I was reckless cause dad threatened to cut off my training, truth is I`m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, too bad adrenaline doesn't stop unconsciousness.

I felt myself falling and then a warm rough floor caught me gently? I looked up and thought I must have hit my head harder then I thought.

I was staring at the face of a dragon, a honest to goodness dragon, with beautiful horns. I may not be an expert on dragon facial features, but he looked just as surprised to see me as I did him, her? It? I don't know.

I glanced at the rest of his body, his wings were massive, and barely flapping, yet keeping us aloft. His body and tail were almost comically long, I don`t think he could stand on his hind legs without toppling over. I also saw a glint come off of what looked like armor, golden armor with familiar designs. Where had I seen it before.

The answer hit me like a bucket of cold water.

"Jaune?" I asked in disbelief.

He froze when he heard me, even his wings stopped flapping, but we didn't fall, add that to the list of weird.

"It is you isn't it?" I stated, after that he looked exasperated, then he spoke in a much deeper voice then his normal one, if I didn't know it was him I wouldn't have guessed it was him.

"Yes, it is me, but I don't think we have enough time to talk about it." he nodded with his massive head towards the still large swarm of grim, this was going to take forever.

"Aqua, get on top of my head I need both hands for what I`m about to do." Jaune said.

He lifted the hand I was on up to the top of his head, I got on and immediately went for one of the horns to hang onto. Once I was as secure as I could be on top of a dragon`s head I looked to see what he was doing.

His clawed hands began to glow a light blue, he raised them up to chest level and a few seconds later it began to rain blue fire, as if my mind need anymore bomb shells dropped on it.

First giant lizard for a younger brother, now we add apocalyptic hail fire conjuring brother to the list of ways to describe him.

The blue fire struck all of the grim, they seemed to dissolve after being hit. Within seconds a swarm that would have taken our family all day to kill was gone.

Jaune the dragon, wasn't that a trip to think about, started to descend. About half way down I could see the gob smacked faces of everyone, dad included. When we touched down I found out that he actually could stand on just his two hind legs.

He reached up with his hand to let me down.

Once I was on the ground I got a better look at everyone. They were all in shock. I guess I was going to be the spokesperson.

I turned to Jaune and got a really good look at him. He was tall, at least one hundred ft tall, the armor he wore when human seemed to grow with him, while it fit him perfectly when human it just seemed to fit better when he was like this. The way he stood spoke of power and a confidence in that power, given the previous display, confidence that was well deserved.

"How?" was all I asked.

He seemed to take a moment to think, then after he decided, he spoke.

"Words will take too long it is better if I show you."

Before I could ask what he meant his eyes glowed that same light blue, and then all of us were in a large urban battlefield, but not one that we could recognize.

Some of the soldiers looked like blue metal skeletons, the rest were more colorful then huntsman.

Some looked like something out of a fairytale. Goblins, minotaurs, humans, a couple of times I saw what looked like angels and demons join the fray.

Jaune seemed to appear from the battle in his human form before us.

"This is a memory, nothing is real, it's a memory of the battle of Ravnica, where I died." He spoke.

Before we could ask anything, we seemed to move impossibly fast to a new location. A giant citadel where dragon Jaune was fighting a group of people.

The battle looked to be going in his favor until a woman in green with pointed ears moved and roots as large as trees erupted from the ground to tangle around him.

A man with a blue hood`s eyes glowed and dragon Jaune stopped struggling.

Another, much bigger man in armor with a dark sword in hand that gave me the creeps, grabbed onto a still moving vine and road it up to dragon Jaune.

Just as he got up to his chest whatever spell the blue hood man casted was broken and he struggled. My heart sunk when the armored man plunged that wicked looking blade into dragon Jaune`s heart.

He fell to the ground, the group cheered but then something happened. It looked like the dragon that was my brother faded into gold sparkles. When he faded we found ourselves in a mountain range.

"What you just witnessed was a planeswalk, Remnant is not the only world in existence and a few special people called planeswalkers can travel to these other planes." Jaune spoke.

As if proving multiverse theory was common knowledge.

Dragon Jaune reappeared above the mountain range and fell, when he hit the ground, it was like a meteor hit. When the dust settled he was in a crater, the light in his eyes finally died.

The scene went dark and we moved on to another memory this one of Jaune leaving that campsite all those years ago, finding the bones of the dragon we saw die, the bones turning into light and flying into Jaune. His screams were gut wrenching.

Then another dragon appeared as if to help him and help him he did. Next, we saw Jaune training with the other dragon both in human and dragon form. All the while we could hear them.

How the dragon that Jaune could turn into was named Nicol Bolas, how he was an evil tyrant. How Jaune was his reincarnation, how Jaune had to learn how to control that new and dangerous part of himself. We learned what he had been through since that day on the camping trip.

Finally, the visions ended, and we were back in the clearing in the forest, I checked my scroll, only five minutes had pasted since the visions started.

Jaune hadn't changed back from his dragon form, he was still ready to fight.

"Now you know, the question is, what will you do now?" he asked but it felt more like a threat.

With all that I had seen I could belief it. He was already living by his own rules without us, and we couldn't stop him, looking back on it we were quite foolish to think that we could bring him back home without his consent.

Father finally spoke for the first time since the grim showed up. "With all of this power, why did you go to Beacon? You could go wherever you want, why stay here, why spend all of this time here?" it was a good question.

"Nicol Bolas is too well known across the multiverse a portion of my power was drained by the Dark Blade, things that couldn't threaten me, now can, if I wanted to travel beyond Remnant I would have to go as a human and I need to be able to defend myself as a human. Beacon was a perfect solution to that problem." He said, yet something told me he was holding something back, not that I could blame him this is our father he is talking to.

Father replied. "Our family has a hereditary semblance aura enhancement, that only passes down to the male descendants, I tried to keep you away from danger to preserve the Arc semblance but now I see that nothing I do could stop you, do what you will with your life, I now know that the Arc semblance will live on."

Even on the backpedal he`s an ass.

The growl that Jaune let out said he agreed with me. "What you want does not concern me, but just this once I will say thank you, because making you grovel would be a waste of my valuable time."

With that chilling statement dad was the first to leave, the rest of the family stayed behind to talk with Jaune, after mom told him she still loved him I tuned out and waited till everyone else was done.

Once they all had said their piece I decided it was time.

"Jaune, I just wanted to say thanks for catching me, even though I would have been fine" I tacked on at the end as a joke.

He chuckled at that smoke coming out of his mouth and nose, he's still in dragon form.

"Why haven't you changed back yet?" I asked curiously.

"Its been a long time since I`ve used my wings, it feels good to be able to stretch them." He said.

"Well don't think that you have seen the last of us mister I think everyone is just going to need time to process this, but we will see you again." I said playfully.

"I know we will" he finally spoke.

With that he disappeared, probably to change back and make sure no one could figure out where he was. Now I need to go home and find a stiff drink, this is too much to handle in one evening.

Jaune POV

Today was eventful. It honestly went better then I expected it to, I was fully prepared to have to alter their memories, no matter how wrong I thought it was. Doesn't mean I might not have to at a later date but at least I don't have to worry about my secret getting out.

I slipped into a parallel dimension like I did on Amonket but a little farther in so that no one could see me, changed back and then slipped back into reality closer to the school.

Once I got to the courtyard I spotted Pyrrha, she was looking around frantically, probably for me. She smiled with relief when she spotted me and then ran over.

"Jaune, we were worried when you ran off what happened?"

I told her an edited version of what had happened, how I beat my dad in a duel and won the right to stay at Beacon. I should start wearing white with all the heroic stories I`m coming up with.

After I finished lying to her she congratulated me and gave me a hug, had to resist the temptation to cop a feel.

But a few things were still bugging me, who was Merrevia Sal? and why was Ugin untangling me from a tree in that memory?

Also as I was showing the memory of my defeat on Ravnica more actual memories surfaced like the ones of Merrevia Sal but much clearer.

Memories of the War of the Spark.

The true horror of what I did then was squashed under mental barriers and discipline, I could break down later.

As we where going to our dorm we met team RWBY, apparently, they where out chasing Torchwick at the docks, Weiss and Blake made up, the only weird thing was that Ruby seemed to freeze up when she saw me, why was that?

I decided to take a little peak inside her head to find out. My blood ran cold, she saw me almost mutilate Cardin. I should have never tempted fate by saying this day couldn't get any worse.


	5. Chapter 5

These past few days have been a whirl of plans on how to approach the Ruby problem.

Messing with my friend's heads was something that I had sworn to myself I would never do, and I consider Ruby to be my friend. She is so kind hearted that I was starting to wonder if those fairy tales about the dragon taking the fair maiden away to a castle to guard her had some merit.

She is my friend and I want to protect her but how do you protect someone from the fear of you. My family was strangely accepting when I tested their reaction to the truth, but were they the norm or the outliers?

It gave me a bit of hope for eventually telling my team and RWBY my secret. This however was too soon, but maybe I could use this to my advantage?

Ruby could be my test sample so to speak, have her be the first to know and maybe ease everyone else into it. First things first though, how do I approach Ruby right now?

She is clearly afraid of me and that for some reason makes my chest ache. Maybe ask her to talk to me about something else to try and get her alone, that doesn't sound creepy at all.

Bolas however thinks that its just like hunting, get your prey alone and then strike. I am a psychologist's wet dream.

Few more days later.

For a millennia-old Planeswalker this plan sucks but it's all that I could come up with. I left a secret admirer letter in her locker asking to meet in a scenic part of the woods near the academy. How embarrassing.

There I waited in my dragon form under the cover of the foliage and a concealment spell, don't want a repeat with that sneaky huntsman.

She's afraid of Jaune and probably won't listen to the raving lunatic but dragon form solves the sanity problem, at least until I tell her about the split personality problem.

I could hear her footsteps long before I could see her. The closer she got the louder my heart would beat. The apprehension was killing me.

Once she got into the clearing she began to look around probably for her secret admirer.

No sense procrastinating.

The magic imbued into my draconic body let me get into position without shacking the ground. I let my spell go, revealing me for all to see.

A small growl had Ruby whipping around with crescent rose deployed with such speed that I was impressed that none of her joints popped.

Once she caught sight of me in all my glory her mouth almost hit the ground. Then she did something that I could not have predicted. All the horrible scenes that played out in my head could not compare to this outcome.

At the top of her lungs, at a decibel that almost destroyed my ears, she squealed

"DRAGON!"

Then lunged for my throat.

Ruby POV

This has never happened to me before. Most people only tried to talk to me to get closer to my sister, but someone wanted to talk to me. Not only that but they were interested in me in that way.

I nearly fainted at that thought.

So, her I am on my way to go meet this mystery person, and if they are some creep crescent rose will teach them a lesson.

The clearing that he said to meet him at was coming into view, where was he? Did he get cold feet?

No sooner had that thought been made, I heard a deep and menacing growl from behind. It was no grim that I could recognize.

I whipped around readying my baby as I did. What I saw was magnificent.

Dad always had a story about dragons at the ready. They were proud, intelligent creatures. Their strength only matched by their willingness to use it.

This dragon put all of dad's stories to shame.

He stood on his hind legs like a human would, his frame was massive. His scales where a beautiful burnished gold that glittered in the evening sun. Claws like ivory and his eyes, they were a dazzling aqua that seemed like it could shift from green to blue with a blink.

I couldn't help myself, I squealed, "DRAGON!"

I don't know what happened next, but I found myself on the dragon's neck attempting to choke him with my hug. Funny thing is that I was actually succeeding if the wheezing was anything to go by.

Despite that he gently grabs me by the hood and lifts me off almost like he knew I would let go to prevent my hood from ripping. He set me down on the palm of his other hand. Claw?

"Well aren't you excited to see me?" he spoke. HE SPOKE!

That voice was like liquid chocolate, rich and smooth. I would speak but nothing coherent would come out.

"Does my magnificence render you speechless?" he teased.

Still couldn't prove him wrong.

"Would a human form allow you to speak."

Floored, all I could do is nod rapidly.

"Very well but first you must know the price for gazing upon my human form, all those that do must swear allegiance to me, can you do that?"

Without hesitation I nodded again.

"Alright then."

He put me down with care and grace, that's when things went wrong.

He started to shrink, his wings retracting into his back, the tail and horns did the same thing. Scales became skin, his face became more human, blonde hair sprouted from his head. The armor he was wearing looked familiar now.

Oh no.

General POV

Once Jaune returned to human form Ruby fainted. He was a little surprised at this.

She woke up quickly though, so he didn't have time to ponder how amusing it was.

"Your awake." He said, to get her attention.

It worked, she snapped into focus on him. "Before you say anything, no it wasn't a dream." Her mouth clamped shut.

"I suppose you have questions, ask and I will answer as best I can."

For the next three hours he told her everything.

How he turned out to be a reincarnation of a dimension hopping elder dragon with a god complex.

How finding the bones of his old body caused them to merge with him and restore his old powers and memories, which tried to destroy who he was.

How a spirit dragon came to his aid and helped him defeat his past self`s ghost but left stains upon his mind and soul and continues to deal with them. She took it all surprisingly well, no meltdowns, yet.

"That explains why you where capable of harming Cardin but not why you almost did it."

He sighed, having hoped that she wouldn't catch onto that, time for birds and the bees dragon addition he thought.

"While I was reborn human my soul is that of a dragon and now my body is too ever since I found those bones. Dragons are arguably superior to humans in almost every way such as finding a potential life partner. Don't you start writing some sappy soulmate or furry smut, its not like that." He joked.

"It's like a more developed love at first sight instinct for dragons, doesn't mean that the two will be together only that it is a distinct possibility. That's what happened when I first saw Pyrrha, and Cardin threatened her, me and Bolas weren't going to let that go unpunished."

There was still steel in his voice, a dragon's rage threatening to come out. Luckily, he could now pick up on it and control it unlike the last time in the forever fall forest.

"Ok that makes sense. We should get back before curfew, oh! can you do something for me?" she asked.

"What is it you want me to do?" he questioned cautiously not liking the glint in her eye.

"Could you change back into a dragon and let me get a few photos of you, I've always loved stories about dragons." The only downside to being human in mind was that he was now vulnerable to puppy dog eyes, his sisters made sure of that.

"Ok but don't tag me on vale book in them." He joked, besides as a dragon he was a little vain by nature.

The impromptu photo shoot went off without a hitch despite the many poses that Ruby asked him to take. His magic infused body meant that he could pull off those back-breaking feats without gravity punishing him for it, his favorites had to be the ones that made him look like an intimidating sovereign and it was kind of fun to have someone to talk to while in dragon form that didn't run away screaming.

The last photo was a selfie with Ruby in his hand for a close up, he positioned his other hand behind her head to give the illusion of bunny ears in the photo. She pouted at the prank but didn't delete it or ask for another photo. He changed back, and they made their way back to Beacon.

Jaune had no clue that Ruby took his joke as permission to post those photos and despite her claiming that they were fake that a cult would soon form with Bolas as god and Ruby his most faithful servant. The social awkwardness curse with a little help from fate strikes again.

Time skip

A ball was coming. The Vytal Festival Ball to be specific. Jaune was ecstatic, he loved to dance and thanks to his sisters he had a wide repertoire of dances, waltz tango to name a few of the classics and also club dance moves that have left many a lady hot and bothered, magic Mike could kiss his ass.

Lunch had started both teams had gathered to eat in the cafeteria. The girls were discussing said dance. The schemer in Jaune saw his opportunity.

"Pyrrha, with your reputation guys must be lining up to ask you to the dance."

The sour look on her face was expected.

"No, Jaune no one has asked me."

The hurt in her voice though almost broke him out of his scheme, if not for the fact that it was to cheer her up he would have abandoned it.

"So, the general populace of Beacon does have some tact."

That shocked everyone.

"A lady's hand at a dance is a sacred thing that must be treated with the upmost respect, to ask without understanding this is sacrilege and to deny a woman whom gathers the courage to ask you is unforgivable."

The shock grows.

"The boys at beacon are wise to realize that to ask Pyrrha to the dance like she is some trophy wife is a stain upon their honor."

Now they are just bewildered.

"Even I have not earned the right to ask her to the ball."

The sagging of her shoulders was telling.

"So, to prove my worth, Pyrrha Nikos, would you do me the honor of going out on a date with me?"

The shock on her face was back tenfold.

Then she started babbling like that vampire from that kids show about a hotel.

"I'm sorry I didn't get that." Jaune said, abandoning his knightly persona.

"Yes." She managed to whisper, as if speaking too loudly would dispel the miracle that has happened to her.

The moment was ruined by a pie to Jaune's face.

Once the dessert was removed from his face he could see the smug grin on Yang's face. She didn't realize that this means war.

Ren was always a calm and quite person since his semblance awoke. It served him well in his career path as a huntsman.

He would analyze a situation weigh the risk and reward of a particular plan our action. With experience he became good a predicting what a person would do in a given situation, both in and out of combat.

Nora was the only person who could still surprise him, mostly because no one in their right mind would attempt to do what she does yet alone succeed.

Jaune was a different case though. Sometimes he would be goofy, serious and then sometimes the evil mastermind would rear his ugly head.

For Ren it was like he was looking at three different people. Yet none of his actions seemed to hinder what his other personas where doing.

His goof would set the stage for the mastermind to reach their goal, serious would command everyone's attention. Whatever he does is either part of his plan or creates an opportunity that he exploits.

Ren was honestly terrified for what ever poor soul Jaune gets angry enough to focus all of that cunning on. Good thing Jaune was benevolent or else Ren believed all of Remnant would be under his command by now.

This entire farce he put on to ask Pyrrha on a date was genius. Ren had a pretty good profile of Pyrrha in his mind. The fame from her tournament victories hampered her ability to make meaningful relationships.

Jaune didn't hinder the relationship that was developing between them. Ren's only concern was that Pyrrha might give too much power to Jaune in fear that her first honest friend would leave her if she didn't. It was a minor concern at best, he seemed to genuinely care for her.

Like right now, Yang in her brash manner threw a pie at Jaune near the end of his little show. Both him and Pyrrha didn't appreciate it. The two teams tensed and prepared for the food war that was about to start.

Then Jaune spoke.

"Yang not only are you going to lose but your team is going to help me."

His declaration was met with stunned silence. "How was he going to pull that off" NPR thought. RWBY was banding together to show the fool that their team could not be turned against each other, even if Yang deserved it.

Little did they know that Nicol Bolas was a master at destroying a groups unity.

Once, he took out an entire clan of dragon slayers by whispering to each potential leader different ways to take the throne and reasons to hate the others, leading to all of them slaughtering each other until he could take over and start his own empire on Dominaria. Compared to that it was child's play for the reborn dragon to turn three girls against one of their own.

After wiping the pie from his face, he pulled out a cookie wrapped like it was made of gold from behind his back.

"This cookie was made from the finest chocolate in all of Remnant, once it's removed from the package its flavor starts to go stale."

With those words the team leader fell to the dragons will. Her first act in the name of her new lord was to grab onto Yang's arm.

Next from his notebook he pulled out a manuscript with the title Ninjas of Love 2.

"The author is a good friend of mine, she lets me read her manuscripts before she sends them off to editing where they tone down the smut so that readers don't feint."

Blake's will broke with that sentence, to seal the deal she grabbed Yang by the other arm. Yang was still trying to get Ruby off but with Blake joining in, the odds where not in her favor.

Weiss he could not bribe, for what could he provide a rich heiress with principles? His answer was to get her to act on her principles.

"She ruined a young maiden's first time being asked out on a date, will you let this crime stand like the crimes the SDC commit in the name of your family by your father's command? Or are you going to start standing for what's right, here and now? This is your moment to prove that you are willing to do what's right."

Those words hit all of her weak points, with each sentence she became thrall to his will. Without prompt she held Yang from behind in a headlock sealing her fate.

He turned to Pyrrha with a pie in hand as if by magic.

"She ruined this moment of ours, but I think you should have the honor of finishing it. Break the chains that hold you down, become the person you know in your heart is the real you. The warrior who will not let anything stand in the way of justice. Replace the mask of a woman who does what destiny and others expect her to, with the face of who you want to be."

Those words caused her to tremble, was it really so simple? Was the path to freedom so easy to begin? Shouldn't the right path be hard and uphill. This felt more like a decent into sin. But looking at the boy, no man who showed her that fate can be broken, that dreams can be achieved no matter the odds, she decided that if this was the first step into hell then she would gladly take it if it meant that she could be with him.

Besides, sinners have so much more fun in the bedroom then righteous prudes.

With her path set before her she took the pie from Jaune and slammed it into Yang's face with all of her frustration of the expectations of her behind it. The release was cathartic for her.

"Does an hour after class on Friday worked for you?" she asked Jaune.

He nodded in the affirmative.

After that she left the cafeteria with all of its occupants sitting in silence. The first to break it was surprisingly Yang.

"Damn, I didn't think she would put so much force behind that pie, I think you owe me two bottles for that Jaune."

With that he grabbed two bottles of expensive liquor and handed them to her after she also wiped pie from her face.

Ren couldn't hold it in anymore.

"You planned all of that? Why go through all of that? What was the point." The Zen master asked, baffled by his team leaders over the top performance.

"Pyrrha has repressed herself so that she could fit the role of famous tournament fighter. If it continues her growth not only as a huntsman but as a person will stagnate. I have no illusions that this fixed everything, but it was a good first step in getting her to reconnect with the person that she really is." Jaune stated with such clinical efficiency that Ren was left wondering if he was secretly a physiatrist on top of everything else.

"So, what do you plan to do now?" Ren asked fearing the answer. Something he needed not worry about.

"A sword must be heated before it can take its new shape. Pyrrha has reached the melting point, now I need to reshape her into the person she wants to be. I have a very important date to plan." He replied.

Ren couldn't help but wonder. Is Jaune trying to change Pyrrha for her own benefit or his? All he could do was have faith in the good in Jaune, because he wouldn't be able to stop him.

 **Another chapter done. This one has been fighting me along with getting a new job. Anyways, I thought I would give third person POV a try let me know in the comments if you think that it's a good change and why so that I can make the next chapter hopefully better than the last one.**

 **Humbly yours**

 **Justus3138**


	6. Chapter 6

I rarely every act like a normal 17-year-old boy, or what passes for normal when you are a huntsman in training. Having the memories of a twenty-five thousand-year-old dragon gives you a different perspective on things, a dangerously arrogant perspective. I have seen what it was like to be functionally immortal and am going to have to face the long road ahead since I regained my elder dragon body.

While I can switch between human and dragon, something only Chromium was able to do, my human body couldn't handle the strain of all the power of a dragon, so my dragon form had to become my main form. If my magic is disrupted, I would turn back into a colossal lizard.

Having my main body be a dragon was quite an adjustment. While human my skin had felt too tight and too soft all at once.

Now I don't even notice it, like how you don't feel your clothes on your back, but you know they are there. That was the simplest one though.

The biggest change was my mind. Destroying Bolas as a mental persona was herculean and required help from Ugin and shear stubbornness.

The aftermath of that battle was trickier. The mental persona of Bolas was the cultivation of everything that he was as a mind and like one of the laws of physics it could never truly be destroyed only fragmented.

Parts of Bolas became a part of me.

Once those parts started to affect me negatively Ugin had to intervene again. Those pieces of Bolas had to be contained, so that I could separate them from myself when I need to, but they couldn't be completely cut off, some of those pieces where needed to maintain the magic and instincts needed to move a dragon body and keep it in a human form.

The process of integrating those fragments while maintaining my sense of self was a slow and arduous process that had had a couple of setbacks. The incident with Cardin being the most recent.

That being said, now I could have near constant access to most of those fragments without any ill effects. Provided I separated every so often to keep the distinction between them and me.

Eventually I won't need to keep separating those pieces of myself, but that day is not today. Today I am losing my mind like any other teenage boy would be. Not to some mystical aliment but on what to do for a date with a pretty girl.

At first, I thought that I could just make something up, surely with all my wisdom I would be able to think of something right?

I was very wrong.

Ancient dragon don't know shit about dating. Every single thing that I came up with was discarded. The perfect first date was not coming to me.

Everything that I thought of had some slight imperfection and all I could do was obsess over that one thing trying to fix it, ending up with more problems than I started with.

This would have continued if I hadn't gotten a message on my scroll. When I read who it was from, I had to do a double take.

Why would the Headmaster be asking me to meet him in his office? Did I slip in my cover somewhere? Sitting here agonizing over a date was going to get me any answers.

Time skip

The Headmaster must have a fetish for clocks. The whole tower where his office resides was decorated with moving gears. Seriously, this is a little excessive. I thought.

Once the doors opened, I could see three people in the office. Ozpin and Glynda were expected but General Ironwood was a surprise.

What was obvious was that this wasn't a parent teacher conference to discuss my progress and not because there was no parent present.

"Hello Jaune, I'm glad you could make it on such short notice." Ozpin started.

Revealing that he was probably the one in charge and that Ironwood would probably defer to him unless provoked.

"I was just trying to decide what to do for my date with Pyrrha on Friday but wasn't getting anywhere." I replied, wanting to see how the Headmasters would respond to such a teenage problem.

Ironwood chuckled while looking at Glynda, perhaps he had been trying to woo her.

Ozpin however was more interesting. He looked both fond and devastated. A relationship in his past must have gone terribly wrong for him to look like that. Something I filed away for later.

"The joys of youth if I remember."

Ozpin spoke as if to drag himself out of his funk. I however was growing bored with the small talk, I have bigger problems like what to do with Pyrrha on our date.

"Yes, but I doubt you would have the general of the Atlas military present to speak about my love life unless its to give him tips on how to get Glynda to say yes, so what is it you really want to talk about?" I snipped.

Ironwood blushed a little and Glynda's face grew frigid. Ozpin looked baffled for a split second then recovered.

"What do you know about the Hedrons?" Ozpin asked with a guarded tone.

Now I have an idea of where this might go.

"Nothing beyond was the news is saying why don't you tell me what it is you think I should know?" I parried.

This was to see how Ozpin would deal with someone challenging him. Would he give a little to get what he wants, or would he dig his heels in like a stubborn mule?

Before Ironwood could object Ozpin made his choice.

"The hedrons started appearing around small settlements outside the four kingdoms and with their appearance a protection of some sort was place upon those villages. This protection keeps the Grimm from crossing the boundary that the hedrons make. Naturally every kingdom wants to know how these constructs work but no one has been able to make any headway. At least no one outside of this office. We sent a dusty old crow out to see if he could catch whoever was making these wards in the act and he did."

Ozpin paused, probably to see if I would start to sweat but this dragon in a teen's body gave nothing away.

So, he continued.

"It was no human or faunus that that made them but something that was thought to be a myth. A dragon was conjuring the hedrons from nothing."

Another pause and still no reaction from me but I was internally nervous.

"After that the hedrons stopped showing up but we had the most knowledgeable person we know on magic take a look at them. He confirmed that they used magic to create the barriers. What we didn't expect was for a student to come into Beacon with a trace of that magic on him."

Ozpin must think he has me cornered.

"So, tell me Jaune what do you know about this dragon?"

I was impressed that Ozpin could recognize my magical signature from the hedrons even though I actively suppressed it when the headmaster was near.

It wasn't a setback though. I was planning to approach Ozpin eventually this just upped the timetable, but I'm not going to reveal everything.

Gotta have a few tricks up my sleeve if this goes south.

"That is a tale that is long and fanciful, to quote a writer whose name I forget there is more in heaven and earth Horacio then there is dreamt of in your philosophy. Are you sure you want me to tell you?"

I asked with a little more drama then was necessary but us dragons love our grand standing.

"I assure you Mr. Arc that I have seen my fair share of earth-shattering things." Ozpin replied.

"Your past lives have never dreamt of what I'm going to tell you."

That got his mask to crack but I didn't give him time to ask how I knew.

"Every thinking, living thing, has a one in a million chance of being born with what we call the spark, and even then, the number of those who ignite this spark is smaller. But for those that do ignite it, normally through great emotional turmoil, they ascend and become a Planeswalker."

I took a breath and Ironwood voiced the question the three teachers had.

"What is a Planeswalker?"

"A Planeswalker is someone who can travel between worlds, or planes, across the multiverse, to unique worlds. The landscape of Zendikar is lush with exotic forests that can get up and walk away. Ravnica is covered in ancient cityscape and ruled by ten mage guilds of unique customs. Theros is on of the few planes that is ruled by actual gods, whose temperament and fickle nature have led to its people renouncing them." I replied.

Goodwitch was the next to ask a question.

"I can only assume that you Mr. Arc, would happen to be one of these Planeswalkers?"

"Yes, you are correct. My spark ignited when I was very young, why it did, I will keep to myself but when a Planeswalker ascends they planeswalk for the first time and it was after my first planeswalk that I met my teacher on the plane of Dominaria. His name is Nicol Bolas, and he is the dragon responsible for the hedrons." I answered.

I wasn't ready to deal with the fact that evil Bolas was technically me and telling them on first contact was not a good idea.

The professors had expressions of both awe and understanding now that the pieces in their minds where coming together in exactly the way I wanted them to.

Now if only planning a date could go as smoothly.

"Nicol is one of the oldest Planeswalkers alive, over twenty-five thousand years old to be more precise."

They all made choking noises at that. I internally was smug.

"He saw me, scared and alone and took pity on me. He showed me how to planeswalk back to Remnant and followed me. After that we talked, and he offered to teach me how to use the inherent magic that comes with being a Planeswalker. I accepted."

I put on my best puppy dog face for added effect. Seventeen and I can still pull it off.

"What kind of magic did he teach you?" Ozpin asked with almost panic in his voice.

That was interesting.

"The magics he taught me are more flexible then what I have seen on Remnant. For example, I can phase my self into another dimension giving myself a type of intangibility. I can sense the magic in others and because aura is a type of magic, I can read souls, that's why I can tell yours is far older than it should be, and the impressions of your hosts souls are still left on yours Ozpin."

Ozpin looked like he was relaxing until a thought crossed his mind and he tensed again, joy.

"What magic have you have seen on Remnant?" he asked.

"I have seen two. The girl in the basement's soul is torn to shreds and the magical power she is hosting is screaming in agony at being torn in two."

Not a lie, I did go down into the basement and would have put her out of her misery if I knew more about why she was being kept alive and where the other half of her powers was.

Ironwood spoke up before Ozpin had a chance.

"How do you know it's a girl and that she is in the basement?"

"Fifth dimension intangibility? Makes getting through locked doors and tons of rock pretty easy, and her magic and soul are like a beacon." I deadpanned.

Though Ironwood probably asked just to see if I would try to cover it up.

"And what would be the second?" Ozpin asked getting everyone back on point.

"I've been to other worlds after my spark ignited, that gives me and Nicol a different viewpoint on the inner workings of each plane. The Grimm are not natural, they are a twisted perversion of whatever existed before them. Someone did that to them and then someone continued twisting them the first seems to be long gone but the second is still active and judging by your faces you know who it is that I am referring to. Tell me what is their name?" Jaune asked.

The silence that followed after I casually asked that question could be cut with a knife.

The three adults had spent a great amount of time keeping this a secret from the rest of humanity. The knowledge of who is leading the Grimm must have become a mark of those in their circle, people with experience.

Yet this scrawny boy who didn't look like he could swing a sword (despite them knowing I could do that with brutal effect) guessed it like a child playing a game, that someone was controlling the Grimm and that they knew more.

It took them a moment to recover.

"Her name is Salem." Ozpin stated with gravity and I may be imagining it but regret too?

"Not going to tell me more?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"No Mr. Arc I'm afraid not, I still don't know you well enough to trust you yet." Ozpin said.

"Fair enough but I did tell you some pretty big secrets so perhaps you could tell me about the girl in the basement?"

I was pushing my luck, but I wanted to know what could do that kind of damage to a person's soul.

He thought about it for a second and then came to a decision.

"She is one of the four maidens, the fall maiden. I trust that you have heard the fairy tale when you were a child?" He asked.

I nodded, it was many of my sisters' favorite.

"What the tale doesn't say is that the power passes on when the previous maiden dies and normally to the last woman under forty they think about or someone random if they aren't." He spoke.

"I'm guessing that Salem probably made a parasitic Grimm that could steal the power of the maidens and a human woman, probably only a few years older then me is her accomplice, but the old maiden still has half of the power so one of your agents probably interrupted and that's why she is on life support, so that the false maiden doesn't get the full power?" I stated.

"What makes you think the false maiden is near your age?" Ironwood asked, the slight awe of my deductive skills on his face was a nice ego boost.

"Well if I were an ageless dictator, I would want my evil maiden to last as long as possible, also the younger your minions, the easier it is to train them, isn't that why you push for your students to join the military?" I quipped.

Judging by the sour look on his face I guess he didn't like being compared to Salem, truth hurts Ironwood.

"The life support is only a stop gap and judging by the second pod I saw attached to it you are planning to try and transfer her half of the fall maiden to someone?" I asked.

"Yes, despite having the best medical equipment available her health is declining so we are forced to take drastic measures and attempt something that hasn't been done before." Ozpin replied.

Despite his self-control I could still see that he doesn't like the idea of using that pod.

"Who is the volunteer, or who do you plan on asking?" I questioned.

No one answered.

Why? Do they think that I would not like the answer? but before that train of thought could finish the pieces of the puzzle came together and my blood ran cold.

Then the rage came but I held it in. I didn't want a repeat of what happened to Cardin. No matter how cathartic it would be to choke hold Ozpin.

"Pyrrha." I finally said, in such a low tone that a blind man could tell I was mad.

"I understand how upsetting this must be." Ozpin tried to say but I cut him off before he could finish.

"I'm not upset." I said.

"You're not?" Goodwitch asked in disbelief.

"No, I'm not, why would I get upset over someone's fantasies?" I said so sweetly that cavities were forming in my mouth.

"Cause that is exactly what Pyrrha becoming the fall maiden is, a fantasy. Even if the power doesn't rip itself out of her body to try and reunite with its other half. She will have a target on her back for the rest of her life. I have a team to protect and if you think I'm going to stand by while you coerce a seventeen-year-old girl into being a pawn of your game. Then you and her will have to walk over my cold dead corpse to get to that machine. Provided I don't kill you first." I threatened, my dragon wanting so badly to come out.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" Ozpin asked. Trying to hold onto control with the teacher persona even though I could see him tense after I threatened him.

"The hedrons are based off of the ones on Zendikar which were used to bind terrible creatures called the Eldrazi. In theory a smaller one could be fashioned to bind the fall maidens' power to it. I will have to ask Nicol if it's possible and if he could fashion one for me."

I was actually going to have to ask Ugin because the Eldrazi are an alien species that in no way resemble a human soul.

Ugin's recovery on Tarkir was the only thing I could go off of and after we parted ways, he said that getting into contact with him could be difficult. Which is why I haven't been able to ask him why the memories of him being my twin brother and the War of the Spark were suppressed.

"Very well I will hold off on my original plan, but time is of the essence Mr. Arc." Ozpin conceded or at least made it out to be.

That last bit was very clear 'If you don't hurry, I will put your girlfriend's life at risk.'

This is why I didn't spill my guts to him. If he tries to go behind my back, I have ways of making sure I know that he won't notice until it's too late.

"What happened to the days where I just taught students how to fight? Normal went out the door when I took the deputy position." Glynda complained.

That word though, 'normal' hit me like a thunderbolt.

"Glynda I could kiss you right now, in fact I'm going to!" I exclaimed.

She was shocked at first and when I started to move towards her, she tried to use her semblance on me. Keyword tried. I used my aforementioned phasing ability to slip out of her grip. Before she could recover, I was in front of her and planted one right on her lips.

I pulled back, looked at Ironwood and said, "that's how you do it General, now I have a very normal date to plan ta ta."

Then I walked out of that gaudy office. I could hear Goodwitch shouting detention at the top of her lungs, but I couldn't care less. Not even the maiden problem could get me down, because I finally had the perfect idea for my date with Pyrrha.

The rest could wait, if I didn't enjoy the good times while I had them then all I would be left with is pain and misery. Something I think Bolas never learned. The thought that I was better then him in some small way spurred me on. Let the plotting begin.

 **High guys sorry about the long wait but I won't bore you with excuses. Volume six has given me so much lore to work with that I have been planning all sorts of twists and turns for Jaune. Does anyone else wish that they could read their own stories like they were a reader who didn't know how it was going to end? I find myself thinking that sometimes but then who would write this story? So I will press on. Also, a big shout out to Axccel, who posted a review on this story. He pointed out somethings that helped me write this chapter, in my opinion better than anything else I've written so far. So, please leave a review, even if you don't have anything constructive to say, hearing that you like this story and what you like about it is the little bit about my story that I don't know what's going to happen and it helps get my motivation going. Till next chapter.**

 **Justus3138**


	7. Author's note

For those who had this on notifications, I rewrote all the previous chapters to incorporate War of the Spark so take a look. For those who are reading through for the first time ignore and enjoy.

I have nothing else to say in this author's note so continue on and I hope you enjoy the revamped Jaune Nicol Arc.

Justus3138


	8. Chapter 8

Friday came with the anticipation of a party and the trepidation of an execution.

The first date

The starting point of our relationship.

Things could go perfectly or horribly wrong. Not only were my future dating prospects on the line but also my team's cohesiveness.

Old pre human me would be calling myself a love-struck fool, but right here and now. All I could think about was Pyrrha.

How her smile would cause my heart to skip a beat, her grace in battle. How I wanted to be there to protect all of that from those who would abuse it. So much was on the line today.

Today I had forgone my regular attire. I was wearing a well-fitting black v neck t-shirt underneath an opened white dress shirt with dark blue dress pants.

Nothing too formal due to what I had planned, and the t-shirt was not tight enough to be form fitting but snug enough to give the eyes a tease.

Whichever feminazi that said men don't have to worry about fashion, could go die in a hole as far as I'm concerned.

Right now, I was sitting on a bench just at the dock for the bullheads going into the city, wrestling with my inner twitter pated dragon.

Bolas knew of but never experienced dragon romance. He knew about the heightened sense for a potential partner but not what would happen if it found one and he pursued them.

I am finding out now just how far that part of being a dragon goes.

For the last twelve hours I have been fighting off the urge to prove myself to her dragon fashion.

The first idea was to go hunt something big and juicy to give to her as a gift. When that fixation was under control that part of my brain switched to obsessing about the merits of getting a mountain of gold in under an hour.

Smaug must have been a very lonely dragon if the Hobbit was real.

All my thoughts were halted when I spotted her walking towards me. I may not know the actual word for what she was wearing but it suited her well.

Leather high heal boots with black stockings, red skirt that bordered on mini and a blouse that had the same color scheme as her huntress attire.

In short, she was well dressed for a casual outing.

"Well don't you look good in casual." She teased.

"I could say the same of you but that would be stating the obvious." I countered.

"Touché." She conceded.

This banter was fun. To be challenged by someone was an invigorating experience. Also, seeing Pyrrha drop the humble champion mask was encouraging.

With our small talk concluded, we caught a bullhead heading into Vale. While we were on the aerial vehicle I casted a few spells to keep raving fans from noticing Pyrrha.

Simple charms that would affect the mind of those who started to get excited about Pyrrha. Once those requirements were met the spell would take hold and send them elsewhere. It would fade away by the end of the day.

When we landed and got off the bullhead Pyrrha finally asked me the all-important question that had me pulling my hair out for two days.

"So, what do you have planned for us today Jaune?"

"I figured we could start with a lunch at this café I found and maybe go for a movie followed by dinner?" I offered to the goddess before me.

"Jaune, that all sounds so cliché." She paused.

My heart pounded, she smiled.

"I love it, lead the way." She rendered unto me.

All I could think is thank you Glynda.

The café was only a few blocks away from the landing zone, so we made good time getting there.

The coffee wasn't any better or worse than other places, but the soups were top notch and earned the establishment a good reputation plus a decent crowd during lunch.

But Jaune and Pyrrha were in no rush so the wait was fine. It was also a chance for some small talk.

"So, how has your week been?" I asked. She had seemed nervous these last few days.

"Oh, nothing new, except my mother said she is coming to Vale to do a lecture and will stay to watch the tournament." She replied while the smile on her face grew forced.

"I know I'm going to regret this but why is her coming to Vale stressing you out? She's not like my family, is she?" I teased, trying to lighten her mood.

"No, she is no where near as protective as your family is. It's just that she has a knack for showing up when I don't want her to."

"And you don't want to introduce me to her? I honestly don't know how to feel about that Pyrrha. Am I your dirty little secret?"

Her face reddened at that.

"No, I'm worried that she will leave you a quivering mess if I leave you two alone."

"Really? What does she do for a profession that would have her lecture in Vale?" I asked.

"She is a doctor and traditional healer, an unusual combo that gives her quite the unique knowledge of hospital and field treatment. She will do some lectures at the hospital and then first aid for Beacon." She replied.

"None of that tells me how she would beat me at my own game Pyrrha." I pressed.

"Honestly, I don't know how she does it but I have never seen her not get what she wants out of people. Some stuffy doctors were trying to get her disbarred from medicine, but she had a meeting with them and then the witch hunt stopped over night."

With that ominous statement we finally got to the front of the line and ordered are meals. I got the clam chowder and an iced tea while Pyrrha went with the cream of potato and a water.

The conversation soon slipped into less heavy topics. Like how our team was doing.

Our cohesiveness was growing at a steady pace. Like other teams we took to naming certain formations and combination moves.

A personal favorite of mine and Nora's is when we use me as human ammunition and she sends me flying at the enemy with her hammer. It's only possible due to my stronger than average aura. Pyrrha doesn't approve of the move but she doesn't know I can recover aura faster then most.

Once we finished our delicious lunch we started to walk towards the local theatre. The live action movie adaptation of X Ray and Vav was playing and I was curious to see what they did with the franchise.

Pyrrha asked me why I chose that movie and I think I nailed my reply.

"I don't think watching a romance movie on a first date is good for someone's stress levels, and I am a fan of the comic books. Honesty is the best policy don't you think?"

"While your being so honest, tell me, how stressed were you planning this date?" She asked like a cat playing with a mouse.

"I was pulling my hair out for the last few days trying to think of an impressive first date but then I figured that with all the ass kissing you get from being a celebrity you would appreciate an honest and normal outing. How did I do?"

"Well, to keep up with the honesty policy we have going. You hit the nail on the head. In fact, I'm surprised that I haven't been asked for a single autograph today, you haven't been giving people death glares behind my back, have you?"

"Glaring would take too much effort but I'm claiming trade secrets love."

Her face reddened after I said love. It's adorable how she can go from strong willed woman to blushing school girl with a single word. Guys aren't much better; we will remember an honest compliment from a woman for the rest of our lives.

Once we got our snacks for the movie, we made our way to theatre three. We didn't talk throughout the whole movie, that's how good it was. Whoever was in charge of the scrip must have had to fight the director tooth and nail to keep it true to the original story.

When we just got out of the building Pyrrha got a text. Whatever it was it caused her to go pale then blush and me to worry.

"What's wrong?" I asked holding my breath.

Without a word she passed me her scroll for me to read.

My dear darling daughter. I was walking the streets of Vale today and can you guess what I found? You, out on a date with a scrumptious young man that I have never heard you speak of before. You probably were so busy with your studies that you haven't had time to mention him, am I right? Well no matter it's a simple fix. Bring him to Françoise's, I know they have a dress code, so I unlocked the credit card have fun dressing up your man.

I now know that Pyrrha gets her feisty teasing and that she is merely a beginner. I was blushing after the second sentence. Near fainting by the end of it. And committed to getting back at Pyrrha's mom when I recovered.

"Two can play at this game, Pyrrha, do you want to get back at your mom?" I asked.

The evil smirk that adorned her face was not expected.

"For that joy I would sell me soul Jaune."

Okay, I'm not going to touch that one.

I know a place where we can put your mother's credit card through the ringer. She does want us to look our best right?"

Pyrrha caught on quickly and matched my devilish smile with her own.

We made our way to a clothing store that I had to go to for a suit for my sister Saphron's wedding. I was the best man and had to look my best so mom splurged.

Once there the clerk recognized me.

"Mr. Arc, we weren't expecting you."

"I wasn't expecting to be here, my girlfriend's mom demanded to meet me at dinner in a restaurant with a dress code, she made the mistake of giving us access to her credit card."

The clerk just smiled at that, knowing I was going to make Pyrrha's mom regret it.

"Any requests for the suit?" He asked.

"Nothing touches this body but silk and my usual black with gold trim please."

"Good taste as always sir. Unfortunately, she has never visited us so we will have to take her into the back and measure, then find a suitable dress."

Pyrrha gave me a questioning look, I just nodded to her that it was ok. After that she left with the clerk to go into the back rooms.

About two hours later she came out wearing the most striking evening dress I had ever seen.

It was a shade of red that matched her hair perfectly, while it wasn't a cocktail dress it did not leave any imagination to where her curves were.

"Mr. Arc, I know I do good work but it's time for you to try on your suit."

With that my trance was broken and I wordlessly followed him. The suit was a black coat and silk pants with small bits of gold silk woven in to give it a small glow. The vest was a deep black with golden embroidery done in tasteful swirls. The tie was like the coat but darker and the silk dress shirt was a simple white. Black dress shoes finished the whole thing.

Once we were done the final fitting I and the clerk made our way to the front. I was dressed to impress. Especially if Pyrrha's reaction was anything to give by.

She was just as speechless as I was when I saw her.

"You clean up good Jaune."

"You saying I was dirty before?"

She gave me a little glare at that, but the gracious tailor reminded us that payment was still needed. Pyrrha pulled out a golden card from her lady wallet. Once the clerk listed the price for everything her eyes tried to leave her sockets.

She still payed the man.

"If that doesn't get my mother's attention then I don't think anything will."

"The limo I called my help."

With that we went outside and as I previously stated; a limo was waiting for us outside the store. We had an hour before the appointed dinner, but we had to make our way across the city. It would take about forty-five minutes.

In that time Pyrrha was coaching me on high class dining and what her mother was like. In typical guy fashion I listened without actually listening.

I already knew dining etiquette and had manipulated and deceived the most powerful people in Remnant. I was confident in my ability to get through the night.

I was so very wrong.

We pulled up to the front entrance to Françoise's and payed the driver with Pyrrha's golden card. I could almost see it lose its luster as it lost more money to its mistress's daughter.

"Pyrrha and boyfriend for a dinner with her mother."

The doorman slash valet looked at his list, found our names and got a host to take us to our table. He also told us that Pyrrha's mom was already there waiting.

The restaurant was well decorated. Crystal chandlers were hung high above to provide light. The carpets and seats were a tasteful combination if burgundy and black.

I spotted a table with three seats and one occupant.

Who that occupant was froze me solid.

Not in my wildest dreams or horrible nightmares could I have predicted this. Someone of a higher power must be screwing with me. But as I followed robotically my hopes that she wasn't who I thought she was were dashed.

Her violet eyes met us as we stood in front of the table. When they focused on me, I almost cowered like a hunted rabbit. This woman already tried to kill me once and would have succeeded if not for Ugin's intervention.

"Jaune, I would like you to meet my mother, Liliana Vess."

I am so screwed.


	9. Chapter 9

**I honestly thought that I would get this chapter done the night after I posted the last one and felt comfortable leaving it at such a huge cliff-hanger. For taking so long I apologize. For those who do not know anything about Magic the Gathering I recommend watching the war of the spark YouTube trailer. It will give you an idea of the emotion behind Liliana and Nicol Bolas, however it does not follow the plot accurately, of the novel for War of the Spark. I have a digital copy of the book and am using it for this fan fiction. I am not trying to sell the book just stating facts and mtg wiki is a free way to look up the character bios to get an idea of the history of said characters. The next chapter I write is going to be for my other fic, Harry Arcstrider, it hasn't gotten any love in a long while. With that hope you enjoy this chapter and please leave me a review, they are what motivates me and help make it a better story.**

 **Justus3138**

How could she be Pyrrha's mom?!

There was no smell of corpses, the signature of Liliana's magic, on Pyrrha but the facial resemblance could not mean anything other than a blood relation between them.

A light sniff told me that Liliana hadn't used her full necromantic powers in some time but that still doesn't explain how Pyrrha doesn't smell like her mom.

Unless she takes after her dad.

But her dad would have to be a planeswalker too to mix the two signatures into something unrecognizable.

Wait.

Combat prowess to put most to shame, saintly disposition to strangers, body that looks like it was sculpted by a god and a therosian name?

Gideon Jura is her father!?

As if my mind wasn't already damaged enough. The demonic and necromantic powers from Vess 's contract must have slowed the pregnancy for Pyrrha to be this age and the repercussions from Liliana breaking the contract could explain why her daughter has fire red hair when both her parents had dark hair.

I am the team leader and current love interest of the daughter of Liliana Vess and Gideon Jura. Both tried to kill me when I was trying to regain godhood on Ravnica via harvesting the sparks of the planeswalkers lured and trapped on the plane by the planar beacon and the immortal sun.

One of them would have succeeded if Ugin didn't convince Jace Beleren that my death would only give me the chance to pull off a resurrection into a spirit dragon like Ugin and get a big power boost from it for round two.

I failed the power boost part, but the rest of that plan went off despite Ugin imprisoning me on the meditation plane and stripping my name.

And, just now, I realize that I am not differentiating between myself and Bolas like I normally do. I can also agree with myself that I have more pressing matters to deal with. Hopefully she won't find out I'm her worst nightmare's reincarnation.

"So, this is my daughter's dirty little secret?" Liliana spoke like I would to those at my mercy. She also stuck her hand out.

Without missing a beat, I took it to kiss in an old-fashioned greeting.

"That was exactly what I asked earlier today when you came up in conversation, she still hasn't answered me yet." I replied when I finished kissing her hand.

"Well while she figures that out what would your name be, may I ask?"

Is this how people felt dealing with me in my psychopathic days?

"Jaune Arc, I am the team leader of JNPR which Pyrrha is a part of, that's how we met and today was our first date, so I don't know if I've earned the title boyfriend yet."

"Well you have definitely earned boy toy status with your looks but Pyrrha has never had the heart for such things."

"Mother!" Said daughter exclaimed.

"Takes after her father then?"

Vess froze at that.

I wasn't going to spill the beans about planeswalkers to Pyrrha this early but her mother changes things.

"What would you know about her father?" She asked with a guarded tone.

"Only what I can guess based upon the stories my mentor Ugin has told me of you."

She relaxed only a slight bit at that. Ugin is known for being impartial and fair.

"How did you meet that old bearded dragon?" She asked.

"I was having a bad day and ended up somewhere I didn't recognize. He found me and helped me get back home, then he offered to teach me a few things. Don't ask me why he decided I was worth his time he still won't tell me." I lied with some internal tension,

"What did he have to say about me?"

"That you are the real hero of Ravnica and that your greatest strength was a desire for redemption you never could admit to and I trust his judgment." I vomited out hoping that it appeased the necromancer.

It seemed that my words struck a chord with her if the pensive look she had was genuine.

Pyrrha couldn't tolerate being outside the loop anymore.

"What are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"You haven't told her anything?" I questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Don't pretend like you weren't avoiding a similar conversation." Liliana snapped back.

"I didn't think it appropriate first date conversation." I returned.

"You are really milking that one, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes I am."

"Can you two stop dancing around the subject and answer me?" Pyrrha asked with more force than before.

Liliana and I looked at each other and an unspoken agreement was reached.

Mama had some explaining to do.

"Sweetie, what would you think of if I called someone a planeswalker?"

"Someone who lives in the prairies?" She replied, confused.

"Good try but no that's not what it means. Planeswalkers are people who were born with the gift to travel to other worlds, planes as we call them, in the multiverse."

"How is that relevant?" Pyrrha asked while already knowing the answer, just not believing.

"Your boyfriend and I are planeswalkers my daughter. We have traveled beyond Remnant to planes that are only dreamt of in fiction. Innistrad is a world of zombies, vampires, demons, and angels. Kaladesh is a place of invention and artifice. Ravinca is a city that spans an entire plane and is ruled by ten mage guilds. The list goes on."

"So Jaune knows of you from stories his mentor told him while not on Remnant?"

"Apparently so." It was a statement but sounded like a question,

I could take a hint.

"Your mother is wondering how Ugin, my mentor, knew what happened in Ravnica. He was an elder dragon before he became a spirit dragon and the twin brother of another elder dragon who was on the bad guys side. He helped behind the scenes to set everything up for his brother's downfall. The gem between his horn's was a piece of Ugin's soul that my mentor used to keep tabs on him."

I deliberately avoided using the name Nicol Bolas just in case I need to use it for something in front of Pyrrha.

Liliana was stunned with the info dump, Pyrrha on the other hand looked mad.

Oh no.

"And you were going to tell me all this when?"

"When I was sure you weren't going to try and throw me in the loony bin, it's not something I like to advertise to people."

"Well as a punishment I think you should not only tell me everything but go with me to the dance. Do you concur?"

The minx, backing me into a corner, I like it.

"Oh, what every will I do? You are so cruel mistress."

This conversation snapped Liliana out of her stupor.

With her regained cognitive functions, she rushed to hug her daughter.

"You are finally teasing your boyfriend, I'm so proud of you." She squealed.

It was disturbing to see the necromancer act like a high school girl.

While Pyrrha was trying to get out of her mother's grasp I couldn't help but feel a bit of warmth swell in my chest. After everything Liliana had been through, she deserved some happiness in her life. The light in her eyes was proof that she was happy on Remnant with her daughter.

The cold pit in my stomach however was from knowing I would have to lie to her and Pyrrha. They could never know that the fiend who took so much from them was trying to be part of their family and with that thought Bolas and I were separated once more.

"Well, now that the heavy multiverse facts are out of the way, can I let the glamour down and we get back to dinner?"

"Glamour?" Pyrrha asked.

"All planeswalkers have some form of magical power or inclination to arcana in general. I happen to be an accomplished telepath and magician." I answered.

"Telepath? Have you ever read my mind?"

I couldn't resist a chance to get back at her.

"Only once and after what I saw I haven't risked my sanity since then. I'm not that flexible Pyrrha." I snickered.

As you have probably guessed she turned into a blushing, stuttering mess.

"I'm kidding Pyrrha I haven't read your mind ever." This part I leaned in, to whisper. "but FYI I'm actually bordering on contortionist flexible."

And like that Pyrrha's blush grew and the stuttering continued.

Liliana was laughing in the background.

After that I dispelled the glamour keeping the wait staff from disturbing us.

There is something about fine food made in a high-class restaurant that will cause even the eidetic of memory to forget the name of what it was they ate. Or it could be the long and boring names that cause me to lose interest, haven't found the ambition to find out yet.

Either way the food was delicious and the company easy on the eyes. The conversation on the other hand was the verbal equivalent of a minefield.

Liliana was trying to avoid talking about The War of the Spark and I was trying to respect her decision but Pyrrha was like a homing missile.

"What happened in Ravnica?" she finally just outright asked.

Liliana, in that moment looked tired and broken. The weight of Gideon's death bringing her down. I decided to offer her some help.

With my telepathy I asked her if she wanted me to tell this story in an edited version. She agreed.

"Pyrrha, had your mom told you anything about your father?"

"Only that he was the closest thing to perfection she could find. Other than that she was vague, and I gave up asking when I was ten, why?"

"Ravnica was host to a war involving many planeswalkers, your mom and dad fought in that war and he died saving your mother. That's why she has been trying to avoid talking about it."

She was silent after that and when it started to get uncomfortable, I spoke again.

"If you want, I can tell you the facts of what happened when we get back to Beacon and when your mom is ready you two can talk about it privately, does that work?"

She nodded silently in agreement.

"Now with that out of the way why don't you two ask your questions about me?"

I gave them the same list of abilities that I did Ozpin and his crew. Liliana was impressed with my ability to create hedrons, Pyrrha too. Her mom though couldn't help putting in her two cents when I told her my semblance.

"Like mother, like daughter, your father could create an impenetrable aura around himself with his magic. If he had black hair and sideburns, I would ask for his family tree."

After that the conversation dissolved into small talk and it was soon time to leave.

Liliana paid the bill and before we parted ways, she dragged me into a hug and whispered into my ear.

"I don't care if you tell her about my dark past. You already put a better spin on it then I would but if you hurt her in anyway. I will kill you and then you will become my undead servant. I promise to keep you in good condition and shirtless while you fetch me my grapes."

With that disturbing image, we left for Beacon.

Once we got to the courtyard, I found a bench for us. This story required one.

"So where does my mom's story begin?" she asked.

"Your mother is old Pyrrha, far older the she should be. Long ago planeswalkers were gods, and they constantly fought wars on Dominaria, the keystone plane of the multiverse. This caused rifts to form across many planes. A group of planeswalkers realized that the rifts were tears in reality, caused by all the duels fellow planeswalkers were having against each other. They sacrificed both their sparks and lives to heal the damage done to the multiverse in an event called the mending."

"The mending drained power from all planeswalkers everywhere to fix the rifts. It left all of them weaker but most importantly their immortal lifespan was cut down to whatever their natural lifespan was."

I took a breath for this next bit.

"Your mother suddenly lost most of her power and aged rapidly. She didn't die but she was very close. A fellow planeswalker, an elder dragon named Nicol Bolas came across her. She asked him why he wasn't affected by the mending. He told her he had lost more power then she could imagine."

"After that he made her an offer. An offer to broker a deal between her and four demons to regain a bit of her old power and her immortality. She accepted."

Here Pyrrha cut in.

"Why would she do something so foolish."

Before she could continue, I cut in as well.

"You have to understand, going from a goddess to an old witch is extremely jarring. She was desperate and confident that she could swindle the demons and she did."

"How?"

"They asked for her servitude, she responded by killing them when she obtained the Chain Veil. A possessed item that greatly enhanced her powers"

"What exactly are her powers?" Pyrrha questioned.

"Your mother is a master of death magic. Raising the dead to serve her and drawing power from death are just some of the things she can do. Ugin said that one time when she was hurt really bad, she used her own blood to heal the injuries."

"From necromancer to healer what an odd career change." Pyrrha quipped.

"Actually, your mom was a healer before she became a necromancer, so it was more like she was going back. Anyways, once the last demon was dead by her and your father's hands, Nicol Bolas appeared after Gideon planeswalked away to meet up with their friends. Alone with the dragon, he revealed that as the broker, her contract defaulted to him when the last demon died, and should she disobey him her contract would kill her."

"What did he want her for?"

"To lead his army of eternal undead warriors in his quest for godhood. His plan was to lure and trap planeswalkers on one plane and harvest their sparks to supercharge his own."

"Your father and mother were apart of a group of planeswalkers called the Gatewatch who swore oaths to help the planes they visit when they need it. Your mom was the black sheep and Jace, a member, had a bad experience with your mother. I don't know anything about it, other than it led him to easily believing she betrayed them."

"What a prick." She swore. I smiled at the use of crass language.

"The Gatewatch's plan was to use a sword called the Blackblade to kill Nicol Bolas. Your mom did all she could to delay Bolas without disobeying, hoping that her friends would kill Bolas, but he was prepared for the Blackblade and it broke, along with her hopes."

"What did she do?" Pyrrha asked.

"She broke her contract and tried to use the eternals to kill Bolas. Your father gifted his invulnerability to her. While it saved her, it left him at the contract's mercy. He died, but your mom desparked and killed Nicol Bolas. Afterwards your mom left, grief-stricken. I don't know if she went here first or if she visited other planes before settling down here, but I think you can guess the rest of the story."

"She was pregnant when the war broke out?"

"I believe she was; I think the power from her contract slowed the pregnancy down, but you will have to ask her if I'm right or not."

"It's a lot to take in, sorry if this wasn't the kind of date you had in mind." Pyrrha spoke.

"I admit, meeting Liliana was a curve ball, but I don't think I would change anything aside from that frown you are trying to end it on."

She laughed at that.

"Thanks, I needed that, and aside from dinner I wouldn't change anything either."

"We better get back before Nora decides that tonight is the night to jump Ren."

This laugh was a full belly laugh and it brought a smile to my face.

"You noticed it too, I wonder how long until she gets fed up with Ren's unresponsiveness."

"I give it a year, they have been together but not together, together for a long time."

"I'll take the under." Pyrrha shot back.

"As long as you don't interfere, I'm game, what's the prize?"

"Winner gets to ask one thing of the other person anything at all." She smirked.

"You only have to ask to get my shirt off, I'm not Ren."

Now she was blushing and stuttering.

"Your just too easy to tease Pyrrha, I accept your terms, may the best man win."

"I am a woman."

"I know."

It took her a bit to figure it out but once she did, she shoved my arm and laughed.

Overall today was great. The only thing that kept me up that night was that I told Ozpin that my mentor was Nicol Bolas and I couldn't avoid using that name to tell Pyrrha who tormented her mother. If I am present with the two nothing should go wrong, right? With that I finally fell asleep on my bed in the dorms. Not knowing that eventually, everything was going to go to hell in a handbasket.


End file.
